Hawarden

Hawarden (/ˈ h ɑːr d ən / ( listen ) ; Welsh: Penarlâg) is a village, community and electoral ward, in Flintshire, Wales. It is located as part of the Deeside conurbation on the Wales-England border and is home to Hawarden Castle. In the 2011 census, the ward of the same name had a population of 1,887,[1] whereas the community of the same name, which also includes Ewloe (which also has a castle), Mancot and Aston had a population of 13,920.[2] 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.[3] 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.[n 1]

The large village is 4 miles (6.4 km) west and north-west from England is centred 6.7 miles (10.8 km) from Chester. In 2014 it was named in The Sunday Times' annual Best Places To Live List.[4]

Both the English and Welsh names of the village allude to its elevated geographical position. English Hawarden /ˈ h ɑːr d ən / is from Old English hēah "high" + worðign "enclosure" and has had its bisyllabic pronunciation since the sixteenth century, its trisyllabic, now solely written, form being due to the influence of Welsh, which stresses and therefore kept the penultimate syllable. The Welsh name Penarlâg [ˌpɛnarˈlaːɡ] is older than Hawarden and is a compound of pennardd "high ground" + alaog , which is most likely a form of alafog "rich in cattle" although may possibly be a personal name.[5]

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.[6][n 2] 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.[7]

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.[7] 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.[7]

1157, Henry II., having assembled a formidable army at Chester, advanced into Flintshire with a view to the conquest of Wales, and encamped his forces on Saltney marsh, in the parish. To repel this attack, Owain Gwynedd, Prince of North Wales, marched his forces to Basingwerk near Holywell, where he took up his station within a few miles of the royal army. The boldness of Owain's movements inducing Henry to hope that the natives intended to risk a general engagement, in which he expected that the superior number and discipline of the English would ensure success, the king despatched a chosen body of troops, under the command of his principal barons, to bring the Welsh to action, or to dislodge them from their post. This party, having to pass through the narrow defile of Coed-Eulo, in the parish of Hawarden, were suddenly attacked in that dangerous pass by Davydd and Cynan, sons of Owain, who, with a strong body of forces, had been placed in ambush to surprise them. The English, from the suddenness and impetuosity of the assault, and the difficulties of the ground on which they had to contend, were routed with great slaughter, and the few who escaped the carnage retired, in the utmost disorder, to the main body of the army. Henry, exasperated by this unexpected discomfiture, immediately collected the whole of his forces, and pursued his march along the sea-coast into the heart of the enemy's country; and Owain, breaking up his camp, retired with his forces to St. Asaph.[7]

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 (next to Chester, but in Wales) was part of the parish.[7][8]

The prime minister William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) lived in later life in Hawarden Castle, which had in the Glorious Revolution been acquired by his wife's family, the Glynne baronets.[7] In 1847 water was brought into the place at an expense of upwards of £1000 to be recouped by the River Dee Company.[7] In the nineteenth century the economy of the parish (about three times larger than the modern Community Council area) 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.[n 3]

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.[9]

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.

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 (International footballer), 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. moneysupermarket.com has significant premises at St David's Park by the main A55 road in nearby Ewloe.

Hawarden Airport, sometimes called Hawarden (Chester) Airport, with adjoining Hawarden Industrial Park is in nearby Broughton.

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.

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.[10]

The four community wards (including Hawarden covering the village) 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.[11]

The county archives, the Flintshire Record Office, are housed in the Old Rectory at Hawarden.[12]

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 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 M53 and M56 motorways) - the village has a choice of three routes towards Chester city centre.

Hawarden Airport lies some 2 miles east of the village.