Hawarden


Hawarden , Flintshire, Wales is a village and community in part of the Deeside conurbation on the Welsh/English border and was a strategic settlement, see Hawarden Castle. At the 2011 Census, the population of its eponymous ward, as modified, in local representation of the people was 1,887, an increase of 29 in ten years. The total population for the greater community of Hawarden, which takes in Ewloe, Mancot and Aston was 13,920 at the 2011 census, an increase of 381 in that period. The scenic, wooded Hawarden Park abuts the clustered settlement in the south. Hawarden Bridge constitutes distribution and industrial business premises beyond Shotton/Queensferry and the Dee. The west of the main street is called The Highway, its start marked by the crossroads with a fountain in the middle, near which are public houses, some centred on restaurants.
The large village is west and north-west from England is centred from Chester. In 2014 it was named in The Sunday Times annual Best Places To Live List.

History

The 1848 Topographical Dictionary of Wales led by Samuel Lewis states Hawarden is of remote antiquity and was called "Pennard Halawg," or more properly "Pen-y-Llwch", the headland above the lake. The hill forts such as the huge remains next to the medieval Hawarden Castle and Trueman's Hill motte were it records locally believed to date to the time of fortifications against incursions of the Cornavii tribe and the Romans.
The Normans recorded the Saxons called the place Haordine where, east of today's village, was the principal manor of the Saxon Hundred of Atiscros. William the Conqueror granted the lands and manor to Hugh Lupus as it formed part of the County Palatine of Chester whereupon Hawarden Castle was built that later proved key to Welsh history, at that time lived in by Roger Fitzvalerine, then the Montaults, or de Montaltos, barons of Mold, who held it as seneschal.
Efforts to subdue north Welsh territory into a degree of fiefdom followed intermittently, with no great success. In the castle Llewellyn of Wales who was in possession negotiated peace in 1264 with Simon de Montford, who led a brief rebellion against Henry III of England and agreed to betroth his daughter to Llewellyn in exchange for restoring the de facto Welsh castle to Robert de Montault. The rebellion failed. Accordingly, by 1280 the castle became a crown asset, listed as a Castrum Regis. Later, following Edward's successful campaign imposing exacting terms on the Welsh, building Flint Castle and strengthening other castles, in 1282 Llewellyn's brother Davydd took the castle back, killing the garrison and transferring Roger de Clifford to remote Snowdon. This second recapture of the castle triggered Edward's killing of Llewellyn and annexation of Wales. The castle became a prized possession: see Hawarden Castle.
The village of Saltney was part of the parish.

19th century

The prime minister William Ewart Gladstone lived in later life in Hawarden Castle, which had in the Glorious Revolution been acquired by his wife's family, the Glynne baronets. In 1847 water was brought into the place at an expense of upwards of £1000 to be recouped by the River Dee Company. In the nineteenth century the economy of the parish involved weekly markets, many seams of coal, the making of tiles, bricks and drainage pipes and chemicals such as Glauber salts and ivory black making.
In 1886 the curate of Hawarden, the Rev. Harry Drew, married Mary Gladstone, the second daughter of the Prime Minister, at St Margaret's Church, Westminster – a society wedding attended by the Prince of Wales.
Gladstone bequeathed his library to the town under the name of St Deiniol's Library, in honour of the patron saint of the parish church next door. It is the only residential library in Britain, and was renamed Gladstone's Library in 2010.

Education and economy

Rector Drew Junior School, renamed in 2016 to Hawarden Village Church School is the junior school of the village. Hawarden High School is a high school which dates back to 1606 and was attended by Michael Owen , but also Gary Speed, the former manager of the Wales national football team.
Queensferry consists predominantly of industrial, commercial and storage businesses by the River Dee and is situated to immediately northeast of the community - the village is residential. HSBC, moneysupermarket.com have significant premises at St David's Park by the main A55 in Ewloe.
Hawarden Airport sometimes Hawarden Airport, which with adjoining Hawarden Industrial Park is in nearby Broughton.

Visitor attractions

  • Hawarden Castle
  • Old Hawarden Castle
  • Gladstone's Library
There are three pubs in Hawarden; The Old Grocery, The Fox and Grapes and The Glynne Arms with The Crown And Liver a near fourth.

Governance

At the lowest level of local government, Hawarden elects or co-opts twenty community councillors to Hawarden Community Council, from four community electoral divisions namely Aston, Ewloe, Hawarden and Mancot.
The four community wards also form four county wards for elections to Flintshire County Council. Hawarden ward elects one county councillor, while Aston, Ewloe and Mancot elect two county councillors each.
The county archives, the Flintshire Record Office, are housed in the Old Rectory at Hawarden.

Climate

Transport

Close towns include Connah's Quay 3 miles, Mold 6 miles, Flint 7 miles and Wrexham 11 miles.
Hawarden railway station is on the Borderlands Line with services direct to Birkenhead and Liverpool to the north and to Wrexham to the south.
There are three interchanges with local roads onto the major A55 road linking North Wales to Chester and the major A494 road linking Dolgellau via Mold to the Wirral where it divides into the roads towards Liverpool and Manchester - the village has a choice of three routes towards Chester city centre.
Hawarden Airport lies some 2 miles east of the town.

Notable residents