Local
Government of
Maesbury
parish,
borough and county
Below: The Maesbury & Aston Ward of Oswestry Rural Parish Council (the Parish has the same boundaries as the electoral ward on the right)
For more precise boundaries see the interactive
Shrop-map from Shropshire CC.
The above boundaries were originally drawn up in 1835 - some time before the new sections of the A5 and A483 (bypass) were built in the 1980s (!) - and are clearly long overdue for reform.
The Maesbury and Aston Ward is a mere quarter of the Oswestry Rural Parish, but it is still twice the size of the entire Knockin Parish, which occupies the bottom corner of the above map.
Historically this anomaly arose because the 19th century Oswestry District consisted of 16 Townships. (see Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868 for details). In 1894 these were combined under two councils: 'Oswestry Town' and 'Oswestry Rural'. On the map above right these are now the 6 Town wards plus the Sweeney/Trefonen ward. The surrounding parishes were then directly under the County Council, but later became part of Oswestry Borough, in 1967-74 - hence the current boundaries pre-dating the road network.
The stylised map on the right (© Crown Copyright) is used by Oswestry Borough Council on some of thier documents. From even a brief glance it is obvious where two of the boundaries of a 21st century Maesbury Parish should be, only the line at the bottom of the triangle would remain to be decided.
See Maesbury's Hinterland for a closer view of this potential parish (or at least a more logical Maesbury Ward of the Oswestry Rural Parish). . .
Local Government websites:
Below: Electoral Wards for Oswestry Borough and Shropshire County Councils (with separate parish councils shown dotted).
