Welshampton railway station

The Welshampton rail crash was a fatal railway accident in the Welsh borders village of Welshampton on 11 June 1897. It resulted in the deaths of 12 people. An excursion to Barmouth had been organised by the United Sunday Schools of Royton. A group of 320 passengers were on board a train of mixed Cambrian Railways (CR) and Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) stock of 15 carriages, pulled by two locomotives. Earlier in the day a CR guard had complained of the rough-riding of a small 4-wheeled L&YR brake van, which on the return journey was at the front of the train. The train left Barmouth at 18:00. At about 22:20 one of the engines and 13 of the coaches left the rails of the CR's Oswestry, Ellesmere and Whitchurch Railway, 154 yards (141 m) east of Welshampton station. Nine passengers were killed in what was the first fatal accident on the line since it was built, two other passengers and a railway employee died later from injuries. Although the initial investigation centred on the first carriage to leave the rails, an L&YR third-class brake coach, the enquiry concluded though that the speed of the train was too high considering the state of the track which had many sleepers in need of replacement, also too light a rail for high speed running. The CR disputed the findings and maintained that the L&Y vehicle was to blame. A memorial on the front of the Town Hall in Royton, Greater Manchester names, those killed in the accident. A second memorial, installed by local people, at the side of the A495 Ellesmere to Whitchurch road, near to the site of the accident, shows the Cambrian Railways coat of arms. The railway line between Oswestry, Ellesmere and Whitchurch is now disused and, although some of the line is visible, the site of the accident itself has been ploughed out. Welshampton Station building still exists and has been converted into a house. This second memorial stone is located just in front of its fence by the roadside.

The Church of St Michael and All Angels is a Grade II listed Anglican church in the village of Welshampton in Shropshire. It was built in the 1860s for Frances Mainwaring and Salusbury Kynaston Mainwaring, in memory of Charles Kynaston Mainwaring of Oteley. The architect was George Gilbert Scott. There was originally a medieval church, which was replaced in 1788 by a church for Mary Kynaston of Oteley; this was replaced by Scott's church.

Welshampton is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Welshampton and Lyneal, in the Shropshire district, in the ceremonial county of Shropshire, England. It is located on the A495 road, near to the town of Ellesmere. It is adjacent to the villages of Lyneal and Colemere which comprise part of the so-called 'North Shropshire Lake District', all of which is within walking distance of Welshampton. At the 2001 Census, the Welshampton and Lyneal civil parish had a population of 839, increasing to 852 at the 2011 Census. with a total population of 3,896 (2001) for the Ellesmere and Welshampton ward.

Breaden Heath is a small village in Shropshire, England. It lies right on the border with Wales.

Balmer Heath is a village in Shropshire, England.

Welshampton and Lyneal is a civil parish in Shropshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 852.The current parish is the result of a controversial merger of an older parish, Welshampton, with part of Ellesmere Rural parish.

Colemere Countryside Site is a countryside heritage site. Due to its important conservation status it has two key designations being a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and an internationally important Ramsar wetland site. 3 miles (4.8 km) south-east of Ellesmere, Shropshire.

Bettisfield (Welsh: Llys Bedydd; standardised: Bettisfield) is a village of about 150 dwellings in Wrexham County Borough, Wales and stands on the Wales-England border, and in the community of Maelor South. It lies south of the Llangollen Canal on the border with Shropshire, England within the historic English Maelor region which was formerly part of the historic county of Flintshire. The village lies close to Fenn's, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses, an area of peat bog which was declared a national nature reserve in 1996 because of its importance for wildlife. The English market towns of Whitchurch, Ellesmere and Wem each lie about 6 miles distant to the northeast, west and southeast respectively. It is described in the Domesday book (1086) within the Cheshire Hundred of Dudeston, recording 28 households and a value to Lord Edwin in 1066 of £18 9s, reducing to £3 in 1086.The village no longer has a shop, post office, pub, smithy or baker.Politician and poet John Hanmer, 1st Baron Hanmer (1809-1881) is buried in Bettisfield churchyard.

Bettisfield railway station was a station in Bettisfield, Wrexham, Wales. The station was opened on 4 May 1863 and closed on 18 January 1965.

Hanmer Mere (Welsh: Llyn Hanmer) is a natural lake and Site of Special Scientific Interest in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. The village of Hanmer is at the northern end of the lake. The lake is 18 hectares (44 acres) in extent.

The A528 is a road that runs from Marchwiel, near Wrexham, in North Wales (53.0225°N 2.9597°W / 53.0225; -2.9597 (A528 road (northern end))), to Shrewsbury, Shropshire, in England (52.7128°N 2.7512°W / 52.7128; -2.7512 (A528 road (southern end))). On the way it passes through Ellesmere and Coton Hill. The road follows an old route that was Turnpiked in the 18th century.

Arowry (Welsh: Yr Owredd) is a village in the community of Hanmer in the rural south-east of Wrexham County Borough, Wales, near the border with England. The origin of its name is unclear but is thought to have a Welsh-language root. It has also been referred to as "Big Arowry", or "Great Arowry", in order to distinguish it from the hamlet of Little Arowry around a mile to the north near Horseman's Green. "Big Arowry" is the recommended name by the Welsh Language Commissioner.Alfred Palmer, the Wrexham historian, noted that the area called Arowry, before enclosure in the late 18th century, was a "great heath" sometimes given the Welsh name "Yr Owredd", and colloquially referred to as "the Rowrey", or "the Arowry". The form "Yr Owredd" was also the name of the mansion of landowner and poet Dafydd ab Edmwnd, which once stood in the area, and was first recorded in c.1490 in the work of Tudur Aled: the English form "Rowri Heath" is first recorded c.1699 by Edward Lhuyd.While this might imply a Welsh origin to the name, Thomas Gwynn Jones, in his discussion of Tudur Aled's work, suggested that the name Owredd was originally derived from a Welsh pronunciation of the English name "Overheath".The commonland of the Arowry, along with several other commons in the area, was drained and enclosed following a 1774 petition by the local landowner Sir Walden Hanmer, afterwards becoming private farmland. A short distance to the east of the village is Arowry Moss, once known as Tir-y-gors, a 3 hectare lowland bog that has now become wooded over, although it remains a wildlife site of county importance. The nineteenth-century philologist Alexander John Ellis studied the dialect of a native of Arowry, John Heatley, as part of his work, published in On Early English Pronunciation, on English dialects. The unusual dialect of the Hanmer area was later studied in the Survey of English Dialects. The village is near the A539 road and is 10 kilometres (6 mi) west of the nearest major town, Whitchurch in Shropshire.