On the trail of Wilfred Owen - PART 2 - Oswestry

Following our trip around Shrewsbury, the road led us a few miles away, to Oswestry. This is where Wilfred Owen was born on 18th March 1893 to Tom and Susan Owen. 

At the time, the family was living in Plas Wilmot - Susan Owen's family home and this was the first place we headed for. 

Once we found it, the first thing I noticed was the name of the property, carved into the stone, which tops the entrance to the driveway. Seeing it - being near it felt incredibly special. 


























Having found the place, Mike and I were cautious, not wanting to upset the occupier but we were very lucky - the current inhabitant couldn't have been more helpful and welcoming. Once I had explained that I was fascinated with the life and poetry of Wilfred Owen and that I wanted to see the house in which he was born, he invited us to view the English heritage plaque, which is displayed on the rear of the building.

In the back garden, we were shown the plaque and a large conifer, which was planted by Wilfred's grandfather and which now towers way above the height of the house. I liked the house very much. It's a quirky building, but very English. 

As we stood in the garden, absorbing the atmosphere, I was even more blown away, when we were invited to look inside the house. 

Bless him - the current occupier showed us the whole of the house, telling us what would and would not have stood at the time when Wilfred was there. 

Most exciting of all, we were able to see the bedroom, in which Susan Owen had given birth to Wilfred 120 years earlier. The room was quite plain but had a vaulted ceiling, which was unusual and attractive. I wondered if Susan Owen had any idea, at that moment, quite how important her newborn baby would become.

Next stop on our way was Oswestry Church, My guidebook informed me that there was a memorial bench in the churchyard in Wilfred's memory. After quite a lot of searching, we found it - a beautiful bench, inscribed with Wilfred's initials, his date of birth and the date of his death. Above it is a metal plaque, which bears more details about Wilfred, along with the full text of two of his poems - 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' and 'Futility' as shown below. I found this to be my favourite of all the monuments to Wilfred, which I have seen thus far. 

 


As we left Oswestry, a slightly stranger tribute to Wilfred revealed itself to me. It seemed that the Wetherspoon pub chain have named their Oswestry pub chain after Wilfred. It was rather unexpected, so I stopped to have a look. 




 

The pub was much nicer inside than it appears from the outside and within it are four displays, which give details about Wilfred himself and about World War One. 



So, all in all, Oswestry was well worth visiting, especially if you are interested in finding out about Wilfred Owen's life.