The fifth annual Oswestry Institute++ Fete took place on August Bank Holiday 1872 and there were 6,000 visitors to the park. The crowds amused themselves with cricket, croquet, quoits, football, kiss-the-ring** and Aunt Sally. There were some sports, the main one being a bicycle race, distance not stated, that was run with two heats and a final. The winner was a local man Arthur Jones from Oswestry but there were two heavy falls due to a tyre coming off and a rider hitting a large rut. There was entertainment from Mr Stanton on a flying trapeze, La Petite Lena sang, Professor Tyler performed feats of legerdemain (conjuring tricks). The evening ended with a display of fireworks and Eddowes's Shrewsbury Journal commented "We did not notice a single drunken person, nor hear an indecent expression."
Oswestry Druids held their annual athletics festival at the ground on June 15th 1877 and a one mile bicycle handicap race was included for a silver medal. The Mechanics band was in attendance and for amusements, the Indian Basket Trick was performed and a Quadrille Band played on the Bowling Green for dancing. Advanced tickets cost sixpence, one shilling on the door, the attendance was over 3,000.
There were annual fetes at the Park on August Bank Holiday, organised by different groups. The Shropshire Rifle Volunteers fete was held in 1877, the Oswestry Gymnasium fete in 1881 for the Cottage Hospital, the Shropshire Yeomanry and the Oddfellows in 1889 and the Church restoration fund in 1891. Athletics competitions and bicycle races were held at all of these, often with military competitions like tent pegging, sword tilting and lemon cutting. There were always a wide range of amusements, balloon ascents and fireworks. In 1883, Captain Morton of Oldbury, the celebrated aeronaut appeared with his ‘monster balloon'. In 1889, the attendance was 6,000.
The August Bank Holiday sports continued until around 1900, but bicycle racing was dropped after 1891. Brogyntyn was abandoned in 1985. The Hall and its estate was sold by the 6th Baron Harlech in 2001 and the Hall is currently undergoing restoration and housing is planned for the grounds.
++ The Oswestry Institute tried to provide local public services from 1863, they were responsible for creating a public library and organising a volunteer fire brigade.
** Kiss-the-ring was traditional game with players dropping a handkerchief behind a chosen person in a circle, who then must race to kiss them before they complete a run around the circle.
Aunt Sally was a game where a ball or dolly was stuck on a metal spike about one metre high and players threw battens, about 450 x 50 mm at the dolly, from ten yards away, trying to knock it off without hitting the spike.