THE Tizer has always endeavoured to cover all the latest goings on in Oswestry and the borders.

However, as these snippets from its formative years show, sometimes stories were left mysterious despite the best efforts of reporters.

Others shed a light on life in a rapidly-changing town during the middle of the 19th century.

A curious report of a death appeared in the very first edition in January 1849.

Certainly such reporting would not stand up to modern standards and perhaps explains why 21st century coroner reports are usually a matter of public record to ensure no ambiguity or confusion.

Border Counties Advertizer: Oswestry Smithfield was the site of many of the town's most historic moments.Oswestry Smithfield was the site of many of the town's most historic moments.

'The late John Jones, Esq. of the Rhos, is no more.

'He departed this life on the 15th of last month, and not even the plaints of Philomel can now reach his ear.

'He expired suddenly, in the vigour of his days; and an inquest should have been held over him. The matter was, however, hushed up; in order to spare his sorrowing friend the disagreeable publicity of an investigation, and in tenderness to the reputation of the guilty parties who brought the deceased to an unnatural and untimely end.'

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No more was ever said about the mysterious death of John Jones, or why the matter was hushed up.

Several years later, in November 1855, the Tizer covers a rather one-sided report criticising the town's bellman and accusing him of being a drunk.

'Mr Hill proposed that they should get a new bellman.

The man who now filled the office was a disgrace to the town; he was continually so drunk that he did not know what he was about, and often proclaimed sales after they were over: He would then demand pay from his employers, and insult them if they did not satisfy these demands.

'Mr Bickerton thought that there ought to be a trifling salary attached to the office, and then there would be a chance of getting a respectable man. The bellman was called a servant to the Corporation, but all they did to him was to lend him a bell."

Border Counties Advertizer: Morrisons in Oswestry.The site of the old Smithfield is now a supermarket.

The following year the Tizer reported on the Oswestry Smithfield Riot of April, 1856.

The details were reported as 'The Oswestry Smithfield was, on Wednesday last, the scene of one of the most disgraceful riots it has ever been our lot to witness.

'Our readers are doubtless all aware that the question of the propriety of the Auctions in the Smithfield has been discussed on several occasions by the Town Council, and the results of these discussions has led to their sanctioning, under certain conditions, the continuance of the practice. There perhaps was never a subject discussed that could be so well supported with arguments on both sides.

'On one side was Mr Hilditch, the auctioneer, and a member of the Town Council for many years, and his friends, who believed that a man had a right to sell his wares to the best advantage; and on the other side the dealers who reckoned that the introduction of auctions allowed false biddings to run up the price to a greater amount than they wanted to pay:

'The riot we referred to was caused by some fifty or sixty of the dealers, who on the night before the fair entered into a conspiracy to upset the auction; but not content with merely entering their protests, and declining to bid, they chose to yell, hoot, and attempt to stop the proceedings.

However in Mr George Hilditch they met with their match, and whether he sold or not, he put up all the lots and fairly beat the opposition.'

Remarkable the same site was also used for the mass burning of pornography in Oswestry in 1971.

These days the historic site is a supermarket.