The Men of the Cambrian Railways

 
Cae Glas Park in the centre of Oswestry, Shropshire is a beautiful seven acre site with extensive lawns, sports facilities, a children's playground and lovely Victorian bandstand. It is a significant tourist attraction, loved and used by local people and a great credit to the Town Council. The main entry is through handsome gates which form the town's main war memorial. Inside is an area of colourful flower beds surrounded by what has become a significant collection of other war memorials. These include a life size bronze statue of war poet Wilfred Owen unveiled in October 2018. Owen was born in the Welsh border town in 1893. Also to be seen are memorials to 'Gunners' from the Royal Regiment of Artillery, especially those who passed through nearby Park Hall Camp until its closure in 1975 and another funded by members of the Infantry Boys and Junior Leaders Association. The Unit - based at Park Hall - took boys aged 14 to 16 and trained them for leadership roles within the British Regimental System.

Cae Glas Park gates

Undoubtedly my favourite memorial in Cae Glas Park however is tucked away in a corner just inside the gates. There, set in a stone pillar, is an exquisite statuette of a robed female with arms outstretched and looking heavenwards. A plaque below states that it was erected “to perpetuate the memory of the men of the Cambrian Railways whose names are here recorded and who gave their lives for their King and Country in the Great War 1914-1918”. The names of 53 railway employees are listed. Oswestry’s railway station having closed in to passenger traffic in 1966 and freight in 1971, the memorial was moved to the Park by the Town Council in 1975. The memorial is by Allan G Wyon (1882-1962), a sculptor and medallist of some renown. He trained and later exhibited at the Royal Academy and was responsible for noted works in Hereford, Truro and Salisbury Cathedrals as well as the statue of St Michael in the County war memorial in The Quarry at Shrewsbury. In later life he studied for Holy Orders and was vicar of Newlyn from 1936 to his retirement in 1955.

This beautiful memorial is a great credit to him as well as to those within the Cambrian Railways who chose to make such effective use of his work.