OSWESTRY 3293 3295. Borough 1190x1200 (BF, p. 152). Also known as Blancmuster and Alba Monasterium in the medieval period (M. Gelling and H.D.G. Foxall, The Place Names of Shropshire English Place-Name Society (Nottingham, 1990) p. 229). The minster church was important long before the Norman Conquest. Along with a holy well, it was dedicated to St Oswald of Northumbria, who was probably slain here in 642. The place was probably a significant centre of resort from the seventh or eighth century onwards. The borough charter was granted 1190x1200 by William fitz William fitz Alan; it may date from 1189 (A. Ballard ed., British Borough Charters, 1042-1216 (Cambridge, 1913), p. 81; Griffiths, p. 223). In the fifteenth century, as a distributive market for Welsh products, it was characterised as the ‘London of Wales’. John fitz Alan III died in Mar 1272. His heir, Richard fitz Alan, was a minor in the king’s hands until c.1292 (R.W. Eyton, Antiquities of Shropshire (London , 1860), x, pp. 329, 332). Market town c.1600 (Everitt, p. 471). Fair 1587, 1 May; 30 Nov (Harrison, pp. 393, 397). See also Griffiths, pp. 219-42. (Letters, S., 2003, Gazetter of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516 (Centre for Metropolitan History) online copy)