Bagillt


Bagillt is a small town and community overlooking the Dee Estuary, between Holywell and Flint in Flintshire, Wales. At the 2001 Census the population was recorded as 3,918, increasing to 4,165 at the 2011 census. The community also includes the villages of Walwen and Whelston.
There is a lake in the Chubut region of Patagonia, Argentina named after the village; Bagillt Lake.

History

Bagillt was part of the Kingdom of Gwynedd in the early medieval period. In the 12th century, Owain Gwynedd and his forces retreated to Bryn Dychwelwch, the "Hill of Retreat", above Bagillt while being pursued by superior numbers of Henry II's forces. Castell Hen Blas, a motte-and-bailey castle, lies within the boundaries of Bagillt. It was the birthplace of Dafydd ap Llywelyn, Prince of Wales, probably around Easter 1212. The castle ruins were partially excavated in the mid-1950s. Dafydd's birth was commemorated by the unveiling of a plaque on the wall of the Upper Shippe Inn in the centre of the village on 25 July 2010; this was 770 years since the issue of his earliest surviving charter as prince.
Mostyn Hall, the seat of one of the oldest Welsh families, lies close to Bagillt. Parts of the building date from the time of Henry VI in the 15th century. The future Henry VII is said to have been concealed in the Hall by the lord of Mostyn, Richard ap Howel, during the reign of Richard III. The Hall now houses antiquities and manuscripts pertaining to British and Welsh history that were brought from Gloddaeth Hall, Llanrhos.

Industrial Revolution

The Gadlys Lead Smelting Works was established by Edward Wright and his associates, who were generally Quakers, in 1704. Organised as the London Lead Company, they kept the workshop open until 1799. John Freame, one of the founders of Barclays Bank, was involved in this initiative.
By the late 18th century, Bagillt had become a centre of mineral extraction and manufacturing. Hundreds of men laboured in eleven collieries that surrounded the village. There was also a factory and works that produced and refined zinc, lead and iron.
Bagillt already had several quays on the banks of the River Dee, where fishing boats had moored for centuries. But by the early 19th century, these had grown into docks where cargo destined for the factories and foundries of England were loaded.
In 1846, navvies laying track for the North Wales Coast Line reached Bagillt. The Chester and Holyhead Railway officially opened on 1 May 1848. The local mines and works that had used these wharves now switched to haulage by steam train. Bagillt railway station had extensive sidings and goods yard. It closed in 1966.
In 1879 a working men's club and cocoa house was built on the High Street in the Pentre area by public subscription. The building was named the Foresters Hall; it is an impressive three-storey red brick building which is supported by the . It was built to promote temperance and was originally associated with the Foresters Friendly Society. It was the first cocoa house built in Wales.
But the industrial age created problems: in 1848, the same year the railway opened, a book was published in London entitled Reports of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the state of Education in Wales. It detailed the poverty and hard living of many people in Bagillt and the Flintshire coalfields in the 19th century:
Bagillt remained a hard-working boom town for more than a century. For instance on 31 May 1873, a local newspaper, the Wrexham Advertiser, reported that so many new coal workings had opened near Bagillt that it was becoming difficult to find enough miners to work in them:
In July 1897 work commenced at Boot End, Bagillt, on the huge Milwr Tunnel which would drain water from the mines working the lead lodes under Pentre Halkyn. Digging started at a point below high-water mark on the Dee foreshore. The tunnel was driven southwest at a gradient of 1:1000. It was brick-lined where it passed through coal measures and shale but unlined after the first 1.5 miles where it passed through chert and limestone. In 1908 the tunnel was draining more than 1.7 million gallons of water per day through the drainage channel and into the river at Bagillt.
Bagillt was also the site of the Hawarden Iron Works, situated near the Dee Bank Quay. It was famous for production of a number of waterwheels, including the Snaefell Wheel at Laxey, Isle of Man.
But by the 1930s the Great Depression had brought hardship and misery to the area as many of the manufacturing works and collieries were closed. Large numbers of people were now out of work and in severe financial hardship. The days of industrial might have ended in Bagillt. The area was now falling into long-term decline. Before the Second World War many people left in search of work: some moved to cities like Cardiff, Manchester and Liverpool while others went overseas to Canada and America.

Present day

Today Bagillt and Greenfield remain areas where unemployment, social deprivation and child poverty are key issues. A report in 2004/05 called Flintshire Childcare Sufficiency Assessment concluded that child care was needed to help parents.
According to North Wales Police, the overall crime rate in Bagillt East rose by 200% from 2007 to 2008; in Bagillt West this figure was only +3.7% in the same period.
In 2013, Bagillt was formally twinned with Laxey, Isle of Man, after a visit to Laxey by members of Bagillt Heritage Society to see the Snaefell Wheel recently restored by the Laxey and Lonan Heritage Trust. The wheel was built in Bagillt.
For elections to Flintshire County Council Bagillt is divided into the wards of Bagillt East and Bagillt West, which each elect one county councillor.

Bagillt Railway Station

The North Wales Coast Line formerly served Bagillt railway station, but the station is no longer in use, having been closed in 1966 due to the Beeching cuts. Trains now run fast through the location, although the station's footbridge still remains to this day.

Amenities

Bagillt lies on a former section of the A548 road. A by-pass was built in the late 1960s for the A road.
Facilities include a community-run library, reopened in 2014 following closure by Flintshire County Council in 2011, a few local shops, pubs and parkland. The Wales Coast Path passes through Bagillt by the side of the River Dee, and the Bagillt Heritage Society have signposted a Heritage and Industrial Trail from the Wales Coast Path to various sites around the village. The Bagillt Heritage Society also acquired the old sewage works near the site of the former Bagillt Railway Station for a future Community Gardens Project.
Bagillt is home to two county primary schools, Ysgol Merllyn, located in the main village area, and Ysgol Glan Aber, in Bagillt Boot End.