Hester Grafton & King Charles, Oswestry - Frampton by river. (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Tuesday, February 26, 2019, 01:56 (2172 days ago) @ vix

Hi Vix, welcome back.
As you'll know Oswestry is about 19 miles from Shrewsbury, which like Frampton is on the River Severn. It's entirely possible if not likely that someone born in Oswestry could reach Shrewsbury in half a day by horseback, and could then travel south by river to Frampton in another day or two. In those days rivers and the first canals were the UK's main transport arteries, far quicker and easier than using roads.

This website, as just one example, states that Severn traffic was at it's highest in the mid 1700s, with 100,000 tons of coal being shipped every year, for example - ships as large as 40 tons could navigate upstream to Shrewsbury.

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/enjoy-the-waterways/canal-and-river-network/river-severn...

Apparently in the mid 1700s the Severn was the SECOND ! busiest river in Europe - at a guess I suspect the busiest of all was the Rhine ?.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/shropshire/content/articles/2008/09/26/river_severn_feature.shtml

In thse days the river was busy with hundreds of Severn trows, quite literally the equivalent in size of a modern 40 ton artic truck.
https://www.severntales.co.uk/coracle.html

Hoping this helps, J