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THE FOUR GATEWAYS OF OSWESTRY.

BY ASKEW ROBERTS.

THE siege of Oswestry in 1644, though it did little damage to the walls, and less to the castle, led to the destruction of both. Probably the inhabitants would not greatly lament this course, for such defences had more than once proved attractions to belligerents, who availed themselves of a position so defended, to the no small loss of the peaceable inhabitants in their trade and manufactures. But, although the walls went, the gateways remained, for these were in the power of the feudal lords, and were as carefully guarded as ever: not to keep out enemies, but to tax friends.

The walls were built by the order of King Edward the First, in the sixth year of his reign, and are said to have been six years in the building. His Majesty, according to Pennant, fixed his eye on Oswestry as a key wherewith to unlock Wales; so he sought to make it a stronghold and a defence. For the repairs of these walls arose the infliction of Tolls at the Gates, as the following document will testify :—

Of the Murage of Oswaldestre.

THE KING to the Bailiffs and Burgesses and the other good men of Oswaldestre, Greeting, Know ye that we have granted in aid of enclosing our Town of Oswaldestre that from the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle in the 12 year of our reign to the twenty years thence ensuing, ye may take in the same Town to the reparation of the Walls of the same Town of every Horse load of Corn to be sold one halfpenny, &c. &c., [here follows a list of articles and amount of Tolls to be taken, and the MS. concluded with] and therefore We command that ye take the said Custom to the end of the term aforesaid, but the said term of twenty years being complete, the said custom ceases and is done away. T[este] R[ege] at Salop.-17 Dec. 1284. VOL. VIII.

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The twenty years stipulated in this royal command proved to be somewhat elastic, for when the walls were demolished after the civil wars, the tax remained, and for this reason the gateways were retained. In number they were four, viz:-New-gate, Beatrice-gate, Blackgate, and Willow-gate. A glance at Price's Map of Oswestry (previously given in the Transactions) will show the relative positions of these gates, and the main streets leading from one to the other. And a reference to the map is necessary even for Oswestrians in the present day, for our modern rulers have so chopped and changed the names of the thoroughfares, that we question whether any member of the Corporation, from the Mayor down to the Bellman, could, off-hand, say where one street began and another ended.

The NEW GATE formed the barrier on the south, and its position is marked by a pier enclosed in the wall of a house in Church-street. It is supposed to have been built in the reign of Edward II., and Pennant conjectures that "the figure of a horse at full speed, with an oaken bough in his mouth," that was sculptured over it, "alluded to the generous breed of horses which Powisland (of which this was part) was famous for, derived from some fine Spanish stallions, introduced by Robert de Belesme, Earl of Shrewsbury." The Rev. Peter Roberts (Price's History, 1815), says more truly that the horse was "the crest of the Fitzalans, and is borne by the present earl-marshall of England, as the dexter supporter of his shield; " and he goes on to

1 Oswestry has been grateful to its historians. On p. 220 of Vol. III. of Transactions will be found an ode in praise of the town by one Gutto'r Clynn, who flourished in the middle of the fifteenth century. In the oldest of our Corporation books we have the following entry :-"Not'n. Gutto Glyn' / his fredone was gevyn onely for his owne p'son / and not for his cheldernes in recompence for a songe that he made in lawde & prese as well of the towne of Osuestrie as also touchyng the burges & inhabitans' there / with the ryoltes of the same." In 1814 (when the Rev. C. A, A. Lloyd, the compiler of the History of 1818, published by Edwards, was mayor) the freedom of the borough was presented to "the Rev. Peter Roberts, A.M., of Llanarmon, author of numerous and extensive publications, in the deep and laborious researches of ancient records, in consideration of his profound learning." The information respecting Mr. Roberts appears in Mr. Lloyd's history, which was, in the main, a transcript from Pennant.

quote the MS. of John Davies, the Recorder in 1635, which he says states that the oak branch also appears on the Seal of King Oswald; but, "as a mere ornament, as on those of the bailiffs of Shrewsbury, and several royal seals in the time of Edward I." And he adds, "There is a very ancient carving of the horse and oak bough in the old house at Trenewydd, near Whittington. That house, by the way, was the one where Edward Lloyd, the historian of Shropshire and mayor of Oswestry of 1707, resided; whose valuable collections were the very important nucleus of the far-famed Mytton MSS. The opinion of Davies, respecting the seal, we may remark, is not given very accurately in Price's History, as the following extract from the MSS. will show; and we give the passage entire, although it goes further into Oswestry history than the question under review.

Speaking of "Maserfield" Maserfield" as a name applied to the town he says:—

This Saxon name was derived (as app'th) from the oulde Brittishe name thereof Messen, which in the oulde Brittish & accordinglie in our modern Welsh signifieth an accorne, mees [mes] in the plurall number Acornes, meserie glandium copia and Mesbren an oake or the acornetree whence the Saxon Meserfelth (soe written by Beda) or Maserfield by the other historians & Antiquaries: Both being the same in sense & neere in sound signifie glandium campus & semblably the ould Britaynes called this towne Tre'r fesen glandium urbem, & accordingly the Welsh poet

Llosgoth ffagloth i phen

Trwy oer fisif tre'r fesen.

Hereupon the Normans afterwards implying the reason & rendering the meaning of this antient Brittish name did call it Glanvill or Glandeville Glandium Villa: and the Welsh Bards sometimes Tre' Koderi (i.e., coed deri, oak-wood), The towne of great oakes as being situate in a soil then full of greate oakes growing thereupon, & compassed therewith for a spacious distance & large circuit on every side; and therefore (as I suppose) the oaken bough was antiently the armes of the

1 Marginal Notes. "Maesbury, a hamlet in the P'ish of Oswestry is now called Llys feisir or llys feisidd [feisydd]."

towne of Oswestry; for upon their ould com'n seale of brasse (called the towne seale) I finde depicted a kinge (in all likelihood Kinge Oswald) sittinge on a chaire, houlding a sword in his hand, and in his left hand an oaken bough. So that when the noble owner of that antient crest the white horse came first to be owner and also Baron of Oswestry, whether to evidence his love, or to add hon'r to the Towne, or taking it as an hon'r to be Lord of the Towne, or either, he put the oaken bough into his white horses mouth, of which white horse & of that right noble peer whose crest it was, one made this disticon Hic alacer sonipes niveo candore superbus

Est gentilicii nobile ste'ma sui.

The Recorder Davies goes on to say that he differs from the common account given of the origin of this crest, viz., a race between twins to a standing oak, taken for his crest by the winner. A spirited representation of this crest is drawn at the foot of the charter granted to Oswestry in 1582, by Philip Howard, earl of Arundel.

The White Horse on New-Gate doubtless suggested the name for the public house adjoining it, and a hostelrie in that locality would not lack customers when the gate was used as a guard-room for soldiers, a resort for constables, and a receipt of custom. During the time it was used as a gaol it confined one notable prisoner there for a whole month,-the Earl of Castelmaine, who was arrested (in 1689) by order of the mayor as he was on his way to join his Catholic friends at Llanfyllin.2 Records of prisoners less tenderly

1 This ancient house was refronted in 1872, but the (not very old) sign, representing a white horse with one leg pawing the air, was carefully refixed in the new building. Oswestrians will be familiar with the fact that this leg is broken, although few perhaps will know how the accident happened. In the memorable Gore and Cotes contest of 1832, there was something like a riot in the town on the last night of the election, and some of the more violent politicians relieved their feelings by smashing windows. Amongst others that of the "Tea Room" (as the "Drawing-rooms" of middle class houses were then called) above the shop of the late Mr. S. Roberts, bookseller, in the Cross, suffered; and the next morning a curiously carved stone was found on the floor of the room, which proved to be the knee-joint of the White horse, which had also been broken on the same evening.

2 A very interesting account of Lord Castelmaine is given in Vol. V. of the Montgomeryshire Collections, pp. 181-3, where, quoting Dr. Howard's Mis. Gen. et Her., pp. 105-110, it is said that "In the latter part of his life his lordship lived retired, and died at Oswestree, in Shropshire, July 21st, 1705, in the 71 year of his age, and was buried in Pool chapel, amongst his mother's relations, in Montgomeryshire."

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