From Anglo Saxon times border battles raged through Oswestry. In 642 at the battle of Maserfield between the pagan King Penda of Mercia and the Christian King Oswald of Northumbria an eagle dropped an arm it had seized. Where the arm fell a spring bubbled up and became King Oswald`s Well. The town is also the legendary birthplace of King Arthur`s Queen Guinevere. Oswestry`s thriving market began in 1190. There is a surprising number of private schools in the area. The earliest, founded in 1407, is now the Heritage Centre. The pupils did archery as well as Latin and Maths. Now you can take refreshments in their classrooms with low beams and sloping floors. Oswestry is the birthplace of the 1st World War poet Wilfred Owen. His poems shatter illusions about the nature of war. He had been sent home, shell-shocked, but felt he owed it to his fellow soldiers to return for a second stint. He was killed a week before the end of the war. The armistice bells were ringing in Oswestry Parish Church when the postman knocked on his family`s door with the fateful telegram. There is a display of Owen memorabilia in the Heritage Centre.