The History of Oswestry: Comprising the British, Saxon, Norman, and English eras; the topography of the borough; and its ecclesiastical and civic history; with notices of botany, geology, statistics, angling, and biography: to which are added sketches of the environsCathrall, William
History
The History of Oswestry: Comprising the British, Saxon, Norman, and English eras; the topography of the borough; and its ecclesiastical and civic history; with notices of botany, geology, statistics, angling, and biography: to which are added sketches of the environs
Cathrall, William
Natural history -- England -- Shropshire; Oswestry (England) -- History
perished in the waters by the flowing of the tide. This tragedy has been
carried down to posterity by a plaintive Welsh melody, called _Morva
Rhuddlan_, the notes of which are amongst the most touching and
deeply-pathetic of Cambrian minstrelsy.
Having traced Offa’s Dyke, it is necessary to describe the course of
WATT’S DYKE, as the space between these two great lines of demarcation
was deemed neutral ground both by the Britons and their invaders, and
subsequently, during the Norman period, became part of what is
denominated the MARCHES, although it is difficult to define correctly the
precise extent of territory they occupied. Watt’s Dyke is supposed by
various writers to have been constructed anterior to the time of Offa.
Its course is marked by Pennant as follows:—
“It appears at Maesbury, in the parish of Oswestry, and terminates at
the river Dee, below Basingwerk Abbey. The southern end of the line
is lost in morassy grounds; but was probably continued to the river
Severn. It extends its course from Maesbury to the Mile Oak [on the
old road from Oswestry to Shrewsbury]; from thence through a field
[now belonging to Edward Williams, Esq., Solicitor, of Oswestry],
called _Maes-y-garreg-llwyd_, between two remarkable pillars of
unhewn stone [strongly resembling Druidic altar stones]; passes by
the town [below the Shelf-bank’ Field], and from thence to Old
Oswestry, and by Pentreclawdd to Gobowen, the site of a small fort
called _Bryn-y-Castell_, in the parish of Whittington; runs by Prys
Henlle and Belmont; crosses the Ceiriog, between Brynkinallt and
Pont-y-blew Forge, and the Dee, below Nant-y-Bela; from whence it
passes through Wynnstay Park, by another Pentreclawdd, to Erddig,
where there was a strong fort on its course; from Erddig it runs
above Wrexham, near Melin Puleston, by Dolydd, Maesgwyn, Rhos-ddû,
Croes-oneiras, &c.; goes over the Alûn, and through the township of
Llai, to Rhydin, in the county of Flint, above which is _Caer-estyn_,
a British post; from hence it runs by Hope church along the side of
Molesdale, which it quits towards the latter place, and turns to
Mynydd Sychdyn, Monachlog, near Northop, by Northop Mills, Bryn-Moel,
Coed-y-Llys, Nant-y-Flint, Cefn-y-Coed, through the Strand Fields,
near Holywell, to its termination below the Abbey of Basingwerk.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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