Flint or Flintshire

FLINT or FLINTSHIRE (Sir Gallestr), a county of north Wale3, the smallest in Wales, bounded north by the Irish sea and the Dee estuary, north-east by the Dee, east by Cheshire, and south-west by Denbighshire. Area, 163,707 acres. Pop. (1931), 112,849. Included in Flint is the detached hundred of Maelor, lying 8 m. S.E. of the main part of the county, and shut in by Cheshire on the north and north-east, by Shropshire on the south, and by Denbighshire on the west and north-west. Structurally the county is dominated by the Clwydian hills running south-south east to north-north-west. Their western slope to the Vale of Clwyd is steep but the eastern slope over much of the county to the Vale of Dee is less sharp. The Clwydian hills are an uplift with a Silurian axis and with younger rocks outcropping on either side. Their highest point is Moel Fammau (1,82o ft.) on the Flintshire Denbighshire boundary.

The Silurian strata of the Clwydian hills, mostly of Wenlock age, pass under the Triassic (Bunter) red beds in the Vale of Clwyd. On the eastern flank of the anticlinal axis the Silurian is overlain by Carboniferous rocks,with Triassic deposits eastward in Cheshire. Both for their influence on the physical features and for their economic value they are the most important rocks in the county. A band of Carboniferous limestone passes from Prestatyn on the coast, close by Holywell and through Caerwen : it forms the Halkin mountain (943 ft.) east of Halkin, whence it continues past Mold to beyond the county boundary. Above these beds come the Holywell shales, possibly equivalent to the Pendleside series of Lancashire and Derbyshire, while upon them lies the Gwespyr sandstone. Farther to 'the east the coal measures extend from Talacre through Flint, Northop, Hawarden and Broughton to Hope. The Carboniferous rocks appear again through the interven tion of a fault in the neighbourhood of St. Asaph. The Carbon iferous mass of the Halkin mountains is separated from the Clwydian hills on the west by the valley of the Alyn and the small tributary of the Clwyd.

The Alyn enters the county near Moel Fammau and passes Cilcen and Mold with a section of underground drainage in the Carboniferous limestone near Hesb-Alyn (the drying-up of Alyn), and bends south to Caergwrle, re-enters Denbighshire and joins the Dee. The latter river enters Flintshire near Overton and divides Maelor from Denbigh on the west, then passes Chester and forms the eastern boundary of the county on the north-east. It enters the Irish sea by means of a wide but shallow estuary. The north-eastern part of Flintshire is a low-lying country border ing the Dee Estuary. The low ground extends westwards to the mouth of the Clwyd valley. This has been one of the great "ways" into Wales for many centuries. Short stretches of blown sand occur on the north coast near Rhyl and Talacre.

Archaeology.

Lead and zinc ores have been worked in the Lower Carboniferous rocks in the north of the county, and caves in the same formation known as Cae Gwyn, Gop and Ffynnon Beuno, have yielded remains of Pleistocene mammals. Much boulder clay and glacial drift cover the older rocks on the east and north and in the Vale of Clwyd. The palaeolithic occupation of Cae Gwyn cave is doubtful, though the find of an unpolished stone axe in the Gop cave may mark its occupation in neolithic times. There is little evidence of occupation during the megalithic phase; one dol men and one stone circle are known, though the standing stones are more numerous on the high ground. A large number of the barrows are round ones belonging for the most part to the Bronze age. In the Late Bronze age the north coast route was apparently open, as was the edge of the forest lands on the eastern slopes of the Clwydian hills. A breastplate of gold now in the British Museum and a gold torque from the parish of Ysceifiog are im portant finds, as is also the Caergwrle Cup of uncertain age. Hill forts of the Romano-British period are important, upon the salient height of the Clwydian hills, and modern studies suggest correla tion with the Roman trackways and the mineral wealth of the country. A Roman trackway may be traced from south Denbigh shire, through Ffrith along the east of the county to Flint, and it then turns westwards to St. Asaph (?Varae).

History.

The post-Roman centuries saw Flintshire under the influence of the Celtic saints, the Saxons and the Northmen. Bangor is-y-coed had become an important ecclesiastical founda tion and Bede records its destruction by Aethelfrith about 615. St. Asaph had also begun to gain ecclesiastical supremacy. The Maen Chwyfan in the parish of Whitford is a fine sculptured cross. The great boundary lines known as Offa's and Wat's Dykes played an important part during this period. Recent examination of the remains in Flintshire (see Cyril Fox, "Offa's Dyke. A Field Survey," Archaeologian Cambrensis, vol. lxxxi., 1926, etc. sqq.) have shown Offa's dyke to date from the time of the king whose name it bears; the builders used barrows and other prehistoric sites as guide points in the construction. The Flintshire section seems more of a political frontier than a military work for de Pensive purposes. The mineral deposits of Halkin mountain are cut off from Wales, suggesting that the dominant party in fixing the dyke was on the eastern side. The occupation of the Wirral peninsula by the Danes had also a profound effect on Flintshire, where many of their place-names still survive. The swampy upper section of the Dee estuary was less favourable for their settlement than the better land near the open sea. When the region that is now Flintshire emerged from the troublesome times of the dark ages we find most of it in the Welsh principality of Powys.

Soon after the arrival of the Normans much of the county, par ticularly the part to the east of Offa's dyke, came under the control of the lordship of Chester.

The centres of conti,;l were Hawarden and Rhuddlan where motte and bailey castles were built. It is, however, important to note that the early Norman penetration was confined to the low lands, while the upland regions remained in the hands of the Welsh chieftains. So strong did the native power become that in the hands of Owain Gwynedd (1135-7o) and his grandson Llewellyn op Iowerth (1198-1240), Welsh influence was dominant in the county. It was with the building of the stone castles of Hawarden, Hope and Mold, in the middle of the 13th century, that Norman influence gained a stronger foothold, while the interesting castle of Ewloe shows a Welsh construction on a Norman model. The final conquest was achieved with the establishment of the great Edwardian fortresses of Rhuddlan and Flint, in 1277, and the town of Flint was definitely planned at the time. Maelor Saesneg was incorporated in the county in 1284. The county contains two mediaeval religious houses—Basingwerk abbey near Holywell, a Cistercian house founded in 1131 or 1132, and the ruins (now incorporated in a farm) of the Dominican friary of Rhuddlan, founded in the 13th century.

The county had associations with England during the Renais sance, and Dr. Morgan, bishop of St. Asaph (1602-04) directed the translation of the Bible into Welsh. Many of the castles were held for the king during the Civil War of the 17th century, but they soon fell into the hands of the parliament and were "slighted." The rise of the great religious denominations in the and i9th centuries caused a profound change in the social life of Wales. Flintshire, as a border county, had early associa tions with Puritanism and the Independents were strong in the 19th century. The Calvinistic Methodism of the highlands of Denbighshire was not so marked in Flintshire, though the western section of the county was much affected. The county has retained, in certain regions that still remained under the influence of some ancient landed families, a measure of adherence to the Roman Catholic Church.

Agriculture and Industries.

The Vale of Clwyd is well known for its pasture lands. Out of the 163,707 ac. comprising the county, 120,917 were, in 1925, under crops and grass. The amount of arable land was just under a third of this. Oats, turnips and swedes are the chief crops. Stock and dairy farming prospers, native cattle being crossed with Herefords and Downs, native sheep with Leicesters and Southdowns, while the industrial regions of the county are a ready market for meat, butter, cheese, etc.

The mineral wealth of the county seems to have been known from early times. The location of metal mines in Halkin moun tain seems to bear some relation to the Romano-British hill-top camps and the Roman trackways, while the mines were of un doubted importance at the time of King Offa. In the 18th and 19th centuries large numbers of Cornish miners settled in the neighbourhood, leaving their trace in many of the present family names. Halkin mountain was a great lead-mining district. Lead is also raised at Mold, Holywell, Prestatyn and Talacre. Zinc, f or merly only worked at Dyserth, has increased in output. Copper is also raised at Talargoch. The exploitation of the coalfield during the latter half of the i9th century transformed the eastern half of the county. The collieries began at Llanasa, then run through Whitford, Holywell, Flint, Halkin, Northop, Buckley, Prestatyn and Hawarden (Penarlag) . The use of the coal led to the extension of the local smelting of the iron and lead ore of the district, and from these occupations important chemical works have grown up at Flint and along the north coast of the county. Alkali works are most important. The limestone is also worked, and there are some coarse-clay potteries. The presence of the coal and the chemical industries, and expanses of relatively cheap sandy soil on the north coast, the whole being in close proximity to the Lan cashire textile industries, has made the neighbourhood of Connah's Quay the site of important factories in the artificial silk industry. Rhyl on the north coast is a seaside resort.

Administration and Communications.

There is one mu nicipal borough—Flint (Pop . 7,635) . The county is in the North Wales and Chester circuit, the assizes being held at Mold. Flint borough has a separate commission of the peace, but no separate court of quarter sessions. The county has portions in the dioceses of Chester, Lichfield and St. Asaph. It returns one member to parliament; the constituency known as the Flint Boroughs was abolished in 1918. The L.M.S. line from Chester serves the north and east of the county where it is the main line to Holyhead. Another branch from Chester reaches Hope Junction, where it is joined by a line from Wrexham, and proceeds to Mold. The line from Mold proceeds through the centre of the county almost to Caerwys where it enters Denbighshire. Rhuddlan is served by a branch line from Denbigh through St. Asaph, joining the main line near the Clwyd estuary.