Maesbrook

Maesbrook railway station was on the defunct Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Railway. A branch line running from Shrewsbury, England to Llanymynech, Wales. It opened in 1911 becoming one of the Colonel Stephens Railways.

In 1933 passenger services were suspended. The railway was taken over by the War Department at the outbreak of World War II when a top-secret armaments storage centre was built at Kinnerley. The line remained in military ownership until it was closed in 1960. Notes on wartime role

The village came to national prominence in August 2008 after a multi-millionaire businessman shot dead his family before committing suicide by setting fire to their £1.2 million home.[2][3]

Christopher Foster killed his 49-year-old wife, Jill, and their 15-year-old daughter, Kirstie, shortly after they had attended a barbecue party at a friend's home. Guests told police that there was nothing to indicate anything suspicious in Foster's manner or behaviour.[4]

A two-day inquest held in April 2009 heard that on the night of the killings, Kirstie had chatted with friends via social media until around midnight when her father had told her to go to bed. At some point later, Foster used his legally-owned rifle to kill his wife and daughter. CCTV footage then showed him outside shooting the family's horses and dogs. He also shot the tyres out on all the cars and blocked the entrance gate to the property with a horse transporter. Foster then doused the house, garage and stables in Heating oil. Once alight, he returned to his wife's body in an apparent act of immolation.[5]

An expert said that Foster killed his family because his businesses were in severe financial trouble and he wanted to "protect" them from poverty.[6]