Willow-Gate, or Wallia-Gate, derived its name from the road, in which the gate was situate, leading directly into Wales.
The borough has now assumed, from a number of improvements made in it, a highly-respectable appearance. Church-Street may vie, in neatness and public accommodation, with the leading thoroughfare of any similarly-sized town in the kingdom. Willow-Street is an active business thoroughfare, the two Banks and the Post-Office being situated there; Beatrice Street is the only thoroughfare to the Railway Station, and is therefore, with Leg-Street, the chief street of traffic. Bailey-Street, principally confined to shops, is a leading approach to the Powys Market, Guildhall, and public offices; whilst Upper Brook-Street is a pleasant location, and will doubtless soon become a favourite site for villa residences; at least, its beautiful situation, and the fine healthy country to which it is proximate, entitle it to such a distinction, Salop Road is on the march of improvement, and some good modern houses are erected in it; but yet its dwellings are irregular in size and appearance, and some time may elapse before it exhibits much of harmony or attraction, as a leading thoroughfare, unless the projected railway extension through the town gives, as may reasonably be expected, a stimulus to house-building in this district. The innovating hand of modern improvement has not hitherto effected much change in the central and more dense portions of the town. Let us “wait a little longer,” and the unsightly dwellings deemed palaces by our forefathers, but which, compared with modern domestic houses, are little better than huts or hovels, will give place to habitations worthy of this age, so properly distinguished for its sanatory regulations and general progress. Such ancient and dilapidated buildings are mere figments of days gone past, and atone not, by their pictorial beauty, for their ruined and desolate condition. The flagging of the leading public streets, recently determined upon, and which has been partly carried into effect, will be one of the greatest improvements already adopted in the borough. The principal thoroughfares in the entire town will speedily be flagged in the same style, so that in a short time the inhabitants, ladies especially, will be able to perambulate the streets, and amuse themselves “a-shopping,” without paying for it the hard penalty of walking in their fashionable boots or slippers over a flinty pavement. This improvement is being effected from the funds of a voluntary subscription, to which a large number of the professional gentry and trading classes have liberally subscribed. The various roads leading from the town are wide and well-constructed, and are generally kept in a good travelling condition.