A colour photo showing a high street winding into the distance from the turning into it. Some pedestrians are making their way along pavements and crossing the road in the distance. — The western end of Cross Street at the junction with Cross Road, photographed in 2007. 5 to 9 Cross Street is visible as the road bends out of view. © Historic England Archive View image record DP044164

The western end of Cross Street at the junction with Cross Road, photographed in 2007. 5 to 9 Cross Street is visible as the road bends out of view. © Historic England Archive View image record DP044164

Small Grants Revitalize Cross Street, Oswestry

A run down street in Oswestry was revitalized for a relatively small investment. Long term vacant shop premises on Cross Street were repurposed, bringing ground floor units back into retail use and developing their upper floors into new homes. 

On this page

The ambition
Who made it happen
Funding sources
The results
Lessons learnt
Looking ahead

The ambition

The presence of some long-term vacant shops and the unsympathetic 1960s shop fronts gave the impression that Cross Street was run down and empty. The ambition of the project was to reduce vacancy rates there, improve the feel of the street and entice people along it. 

Colour photo of a 4 storey red brick period building with empty shop on the ground floor and 'to let' displayed outside. — 5-9 Cross Street, Oswestry, before the shop front improvement work began © Samantha Jones

Colour photo of 3 storeys of a period red-brick building. The groud floor is a clothing shop called 'Nightingales'. — 5-9 Cross Street after completing shop front improvement works and repurposing the upper floors to create 9 new residential units © Samantha Jones

Who made it happen

The HSHAZ was a partnership scheme led by Shropshire Council and supported by Historic England. The Project Officer of the Oswestry High Street Heritage Action Zone (HSHAZ) led this project as part of the HSHAZ’s capital grants and public realm improvements work. The project was delivered during 2022 and early 2023 in partnership with the Future Oswestry Group, made up of members of Shropshire Council, Oswestry Town Council and Oswestry Business Improvement District (BID). 

The case study details on this page were supplied by Shropshire Council.

Learn about High Street Heritage Action Zones

Funding sources

5-9 Cross Street had £62,000 from Historic England, £12,000 from Oswestry Town Council and owners put £529,921 of their own match funding into the scheme 
17 Cross Street had £9,398 from Historic England, £9,398 from Oswestry Town Council, £14,301 from Shropshire Council and the tenant put in £9,534 from their own funds
 25 Cross Street had £6,000 from Historic England and £6,000 from Oswestry Town Council and the owners put in £9,022 of their own funding into the scheme
24 Cross Street, a Grade II listed building, had £4,712 from Historic England, £4,712 from Oswestry Town Council, and £6,282 from the owner
There was also match funding from Shropshire Council in the form of resurfacing of the road.

A loft space during building works with building materials stacked in piles and ladders laid on the floor. — 5 to 9 Cross Street, Oswestry, before the work to develop 9 new apartments © Samantha Jones

A newly installed and unoccupied kitchen in a loft space. — Converting the upper floors of 5 to 9 Cross Street to housing has brought more people to live locally and become regular customers, supporting businesses on Cross Street © Samantha Jones

The results

The project created a street that looks inviting with the result that more people visit it on foot.

For 4 shops, newly designed timber shop fronts were installed. Their designs were based on 1960s photographs of historic shop fronts in the town centre and are in keeping with the buildings’ overall designs. The street was also resurfaced. 

Seeing these improvements, owners of neighbouring shops were encouraged and took the initiative to refurbish their own shop fronts themselves.

At 5-9 Cross Street the project was able to support the creation of 9 new accommodation units so there are now people living on the street who are regular customers for the neighbouring businesses. 

The investment for achieving all of this was relatively small. The scheme had a cap of £12,000 for shop front grants and £25,000 for repurposing.

Lessons learnt

Oswestry Business Improvement District (BID) proved to be an effective channel for contacting local businesses about the grant scheme
Delivering the project through the established Future Oswestry Group partnership made it easier to adapt quickly to the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic and the inflationary pressures created by the war in Ukraine
Using old photos to inform the shop front designs worked well. At times you need to be pragmatic and amend designs to accommodate later changes to an old building, such as the addition of a rolled steel joist (RSJ). Nonetheless, pushing for good design is vital to ensure a quality installation
Establishing a good relationship with grant applicants is essential. Working with them through the application process and ensuring that they understand what is required at each stage to ensure a positive outcome is important

A colour photo of a 3-storey period building with cafe on the ground floor called Scotty's Cafe, a first floor with floor to ceiling arched windows and third floor with fine stone details and columns framing the windows. — 17 Cross Street before the shop front improvement work © Samantha Jones

A colour photo of 2 floors of a high street building with groud floor shop 'Designs in Mind' and first floor with floor to ceiling arched windows. — 17 Cross Street, Oswestry, after completing the shop front improvement works © Samantha Jones

Looking ahead

Having seen the benefits of running a scheme to help businesses to reinstate/repair historic shop fronts, Oswestry Town Council have set up a new Breathing New Life into Empty Properties grant for businesses. During difficult times the grant could mean the difference between a business reinstating shop front detail that was originally there rather than just putting up with a later installation. 

Oswestry Town Council have purchased Grade I listed Llwyd Mansion, 1-3 Cross Street. This legacy flagship project will repair and repurpose the empty building to bring it back into public use.