Bagillt
Encyclopedia
Bagillt is a small town near Holywell
in Flintshire
, North
Wales
. At the 2001 Census
the population was recorded as 3,918.
Above Bagillt is Bryn Dychwelwch, "Hill of Retreat", so called from the retreat effected by Owain Gwynedd
, when pursued by Henry II
, with superior numbers. Castell Hen Blas also lies within the boundaries of Bagillt, a motte and bailey castle
that was the birthplace of Dafydd ap Llywelyn
, prince of Wales
, around 1215. 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, 770 years since the issuing 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
. During the 15th century, the Earl of Richmond
, the future Henry VII
, is said to have been concealed here in the reign of Richard III
, by the lord of Mostyn
, Richard ap Howel. The Hall now houses antiquities and manuscripts pertaining to old British
history and Welsh that were brought from Gloddaeth Hall
, Llanrhos
.
In 1879 a Workingman's Club and Cocoa House was built on Forrester's way, an impressive three storey red brick building of note which is supported by the Bagillt Heritage Trust. The purpose of the building was to promote temperance.
and manufacture in North East Wales. Hundreds of men laboured in 11 collieries
that surrounded the village. There was also an alkali
and kindred 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 has 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 freight yard. It closed in 1966.
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.http://stmarysbagillt.co.uk/
Bagillt remained a hard-working boom town for more than a century. For instance on 31 May 1873, even a local newspaper, the Wrexham Advertiser, reported that so many new coal workings had opened near Bagillt it was becoming difficult finding enough miners to work in them:
But by the 1930s the Great Depression in the United Kingdom
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 had ended in Bagillt. The area was now falling into long-term decline. Prior to World War II
many people left in search of work, some moved to cities like Cardiff
, Manchester
and Liverpool
while others went overseas to Canada
and America
.http://stmarysbagillt.co.uk/
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 figures available from North Wales Police
, the overall crime rate in Bagillt East has risen 200% from 2007 to 2008; in Bagillt West this figure was only +3.7% in the same period.
was built in the 1980s for the A road
.
Community facilities include a few local shops, pubs and parkland.
Holywell
Holywell is the fifth largest town in Flintshire, North Wales, lying to the west of the estuary of the River Dee.-History:The market town of Holywell takes its name from the St Winefride's Well, a holy well surrounded by a chapel...
in Flintshire
Flintshire
Flintshire is a county in north-east Wales. It borders Denbighshire, Wrexham and the English county of Cheshire. It is named after the historic county of Flintshire, which had notably different borders...
, North
North Wales
North Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales and to the east by the counties of Shropshire in the West Midlands and Cheshire in North West England...
Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. At the 2001 Census
United Kingdom Census 2001
A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....
the population was recorded as 3,918.
History
http://stmarysbagillt.co.uk/Above Bagillt is Bryn Dychwelwch, "Hill of Retreat", so called from the retreat effected by Owain Gwynedd
Owain Gwynedd
Owain Gwynedd ap Gruffydd , in English also known as Owen the Great, was King of Gwynedd from 1137 until his death in 1170. He is occasionally referred to as "Owain I of Gwynedd"; and as "Owain I of Wales" on account of his claim to be King of Wales. He is considered to be the most successful of...
, when pursued by Henry II
Henry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
, with superior numbers. Castell Hen Blas also lies within the boundaries of Bagillt, a motte and bailey castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
that was the birthplace of Dafydd ap Llywelyn
Dafydd ap Llywelyn
Dafydd ap Llywelyn was Prince of Gwynedd from 1240 to 1246. He was for a time recognised as Prince of Wales.- Descent :...
, prince of Wales
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...
, around 1215. 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, 770 years since the issuing of his earliest surviving charter as prince.
Mostyn Hall
Mostyn Hall
Mostyn Hall is a large house near the village of Mostyn, Flintshire, Wales . It is a Grade I listed building.It is not known for how long a building has been present on the site, but since 1660 it has been the seat of the baronets of Mostyn, and since 1831, of the barons of Mostyn. In the...
, the seat of one of the oldest Welsh families
Mostyn Baronets
There have been two Baronetcies created for persons with the surname Mostyn, both in the Baronetage of England. One creation is extant as of 2008....
, lies close to Bagillt. Parts of the building date from the time of Henry VI
Henry VI of England
Henry VI was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. Until 1437, his realm was governed by regents. Contemporaneous accounts described him as peaceful and pious, not suited for the violent dynastic civil wars, known as the Wars...
. During the 15th century, the Earl of Richmond
Henry VII of England
Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....
, the future Henry VII
Henry VII of England
Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....
, is said to have been concealed here in the reign of Richard III
Richard III of England
Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...
, by the lord of Mostyn
Mostyn
Mostyn is a small village in Flintshire, North Wales, lying on the estuary of the River Dee, and located near the town of Holywell.Mostyn once served as a port from which ferries used to sail to Dublin on the Liverpool-Dublin route...
, Richard ap Howel. The Hall now houses antiquities and manuscripts pertaining to old British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
history and Welsh that were brought from Gloddaeth Hall
Gloddaeth Hall
Gloddaeth Hall is a large country house in Llandudno, Conwy, Wales. It is a Grade I listed building. It stands on land which had been owned by the Mostyn family since the 15th century...
, Llanrhos
Llanrhos
Llanrhos is a village to the east and south of Llandudno in the Conwy County Borough, Wales. The Llanrhos parish traditionally includes Deganwy, the Craig-y-Don district of Llandudno, the Little Orme and Penrhyn Bay....
.
In 1879 a Workingman's Club and Cocoa House was built on Forrester's way, an impressive three storey red brick building of note which is supported by the Bagillt Heritage Trust. The purpose of the building was to promote temperance.
Industrial Revolution
By the late 18th century, Bagillt had become a centre of raw-mineral extractionMining in Wales
Mining in Wales provided a significant source of income to the economy of Wales throughout the nineteenth century and early twentieth century....
and manufacture in North East Wales. Hundreds of men laboured in 11 collieries
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
that surrounded the village. There was also an alkali
Alkali
In chemistry, an alkali is a basic, ionic salt of an alkali metal or alkaline earth metal element. Some authors also define an alkali as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a soluble base has a pH greater than 7. The adjective alkaline is commonly used in English as a synonym for base,...
and kindred factory and works that produced and refined zinc
Zinc
Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...
, lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
and iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
.
Bagillt already had several quays on the banks of the River Dee
River Dee, Wales
The River Dee is a long river in the United Kingdom. It travels through Wales and England and also forms part of the border between the two countries....
where fishing boats had moored for centuries. But by the early 19th century, these has 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
North Wales Coast Line
The North Wales Coast Line is the railway line from Crewe to Holyhead. Virgin Trains consider their services along it to be a spur of the West Coast Main Line. The first section from Crewe to Chester was built by the Chester and Crewe Railway and absorbed by the Grand Junction Railway shortly...
reached Bagillt. The Chester and Holyhead Railway
Chester and Holyhead Railway
The Chester and Holyhead Railway was incorporated out of a proposal to link Holyhead, the traditional port for the Irish Mail, with London by way of the existing Chester and Crewe Railway, and what is now the West Coast Main Line...
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
Bagillt railway station
Bagillt railway station was a railway station serving the village of Bagillt on the North Wales Coast Line in the Welsh county of Flintshire. Although trains still pass on the main line the station closed in 1966.-History:...
had extensive sidings and freight yard. It closed in 1966.
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
Treachery of the Blue Books
The Treachery of the Blue Books or Treason of the Blue Books was the name given in Wales to the Reports of the commissioners of enquiry into the state of education in Wales published in 1847. The term Brad y Llyfrau Gleision was coined by the author R. J...
. It detailed the poverty and hard living of many people in Bagillt and the Flintshire coalfields in the 19th century.http://stmarysbagillt.co.uk/
In some of the collieries the men are paid every other Saturday, and do not return to their work till the following Tuesday or Wednesday. In Bagillt and in the adjoining town of Flint the old Welsh custom of keeping a merry night (noswaithlawen) is still prevalent, and, being generally reserved for a Saturday, is protracted to the following Sunday, during which drinking never ceases. The custom is represented by the clergy and others as involving the most pernicious consequences.
I saw two men stripped and fighting in the main street of Bagillt, with a ring of men, women, and children around them. There is no policeman in the township. The women are represented as being for the most part ignorant of housewifery and domestic economy. The girls are very early sent to service, but marry as early as 18, and have large families.
Women are not employed in or about the mines, but spend most of their time in cockling, or gathering cockles on the beach. They have low ideas of domestic comfort, living in small cottages dirty and ill-ventilated, and at night are crowded together in the same room, and sometimes in the same bed, without regard to age or sex.
Bagillt remained a hard-working boom town for more than a century. For instance on 31 May 1873, even a local newspaper, the Wrexham Advertiser, reported that so many new coal workings had opened near Bagillt it was becoming difficult finding enough miners to work in them:
No less than four new collieries have been recently started near Mold, and it is becoming a serious question how to get labour to work them, all the men available in the district being already engaged. The colliery nearest the town on the north side is named Hard Struggle from the difficulty experienced in obtaining water to get up steam. Another to the east side is named Slap Bang from the fact that coal has been found near the surface. To the south the Linger and Die company are doing their best to reduce the price of coal and to enhance that of labour. While to the south east the Strip and at it company are showing the world how to make the most of it. We hear of numberless other ventures, but these are the principal.
But by the 1930s the Great Depression in the United Kingdom
Great Depression in the United Kingdom
The Great Depression in the United Kingdom, also known as the Great Slump, was a period of national economic downturn in the 1930s, which had its origins in the global 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 had ended in Bagillt. The area was now falling into long-term decline. Prior to World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
many people left in search of work, some moved to cities like Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
and Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
while others went overseas to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.http://stmarysbagillt.co.uk/
Present Day
Today Bagillt and GreenfieldGreenfield, Flintshire
Greenfield is a village on the outskirts of Holywell, Flintshire, north-east Wales, located on the edge of the River Dee estuary. At the 2001 Census, it had a population of 2,741.-History:...
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.
The Parent Childcare Survey found that 17% of women not in work (6% of all women with children) said that they did not work because they couldn’t find suitable childcare. This figure represents approximately 660 families across Flintshire. If childcare were accessible to these women, the local economy would benefit by around £11.5m per year through earnings alone.
According to figures available from North Wales Police
North Wales Police
North Wales Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing North Wales. The headquarters are in Colwyn Bay, with divisional headquarters in St Asaph, Caernarfon and Wrexham....
, the overall crime rate in Bagillt East has risen 200% from 2007 to 2008; in Bagillt West this figure was only +3.7% in the same period.
Amenities
Bagillt lies on a former section of the A548 road. A by-passBypass (road)
A bypass is a road or highway that avoids or "bypasses" a built-up area, town, or village, to let through traffic flow without interference from local traffic, to reduce congestion in the built-up area, and to improve road safety....
was built in the 1980s for the A road
Great Britain road numbering scheme
The Great Britain road numbering scheme is a numbering scheme used to classify and identify all roads in Great Britain. Each road is given a single letter, which represents the road's category, and a subsequent number, with a length of between 1 and 4 digits. Originally introduced to arrange...
.
Community facilities include a few local shops, pubs and parkland.