Hawarden

Etymology

Both the English and Welsh names of the village allude to its elevated geographical position. English Hawarden 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 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 be a personal name.

History

The 1848 Topographical Dictionary of Wales led by Samuel Lewis states that 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 that 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 since it formed part of the County Palatine of Chester, whereupon Hawarden Castle was built and 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 Dafydd 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.

19th century

The prime minister William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) spent his 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 (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.

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.

In 1896, Hawarden was the location of prime minister William Ewart Gladstone's meeting with Li Hongzhang, a key reformer in the Qing dynasty's Self Strengthening Movement, on his diplomatic mission to the UK.

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

Hawarden Village Church School (previously Rector Drew Primary 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 and Gary Speed, the former manager of the Wales national football team.

In 1927, Knutsford Ordination Test School relocated to Hawarden — first to the Old Rectory, then to the new castle in 1939 before it closed the following year.

Economy

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.

Visitor attractions

• St Deiniol's Church
• Hawarden Castle
• Old Hawarden Castle
• Gladstone's Library

Governance

At the lowest level of local government, Hawarden Community Council elects or co-opts twenty-one community councillors from three wards namely Hawarden Aston, Hawarden Ewloe and Hawarden Mancot.

There are three identical electoral wards for Flintshire County Council, each of which elects two councillors.

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

Climate

The highest temperature in Wales was recorded in Hawarden on 18 July 2022 at 37.1 °C (98.8 °F). The previous highest temperature recorded in Wales, 35.2 °C (95.4 °F), was also recorded in Hawarden on 2 August 1990. Hawarden has held this record almost continuously, until it was replaced for a few hours by Gogerddan which recorded a temperature of 35.3 °C (95.5 °F) on 18 July 2022, first breaking the Welsh record, after which Hawarden surpassed Gogerddan.

Transport

Close towns include Connah's Quay 3 mi, Mold 6 mi, Flint 7 mi and the city of Wrexham 11 mi.

Hawarden railway station is on the Borderlands line with services direct to to the north and to (via ) 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 mi east of the village.

Queensferry, Shotton Penyffordd Connah's Quay

Notable residents

• Sir John Glynne, 6th Baronet (1713–1777) politician and landowner, built Hawarden Castle.
• Emma, Lady Hamilton (1765–1815), maid, model, dancer and actress; raised in Hawarden.
• William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898), 12 years as Prime Minister; retired to Hawarden Castle.
• Edmund J. Baillie (1851–1897) businessman, horticulturalist and vegetarianism activist.
• Mary Gladstone (1847–1927), daughter of the UK Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone; lived in Hawarden Castle from 1886
• Edith Austin (1867–1953) tennis player and Wimbledon singles finalist in 1894 and five time British Covered Court Champion was born in Hawarden.
• Maysie Chalmers (1894–1982), actress, electrical engineer and designer, leading figure in the Electrical Association for Women.
• Air Marshal Sir John Rowlands (1915–2006), recipient of the George Cross for bomb disposal in WWII; later worked on nuclear weapons programme.
• Nicholas Hunt (1930–2013), navy Rear-Admiral, father of Jeremy Hunt MP.
• Barry Jones, Baron Jones (born 1938), politician, went to Hawarden Grammar School
• Tony Millington (1943–2015) footballer, with over 350 club caps and 21 for Wales
• Sasha (DJ), (born 1969), DJ and producer, real name Alexander Paul Coe
• Michael Owen (born 1979), footballer with 326 club caps and 89 for England; went to school in Hawarden.
• Jamie Hewlett, (born 1968), Comic book artist mostly known for Tank girl and co-creating the animated band, Gorillaz with Damon Albarn. Hewlett was born in Hawarden but was raised in Horsham, West Sussex.

References

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2. "Hawarden Parish (Community)".
3. "Hawarden Parish (Community)".
4. (14 March 2014). "Hawarden named as one of the best places to live in UK".
5. Owen, Hywel Wyn. (2015). "The Place-Names of Wales". University of Wales Press.
6. "Grid Ref Finder measurement tools".
7. Lewis, Samuel. (1833). "A Topographical Dictionary of Wales". S. Lewis and Co.
8. Samuel Lewis. (1849). "Halghston - Hawarden". Institute of Historical Research.
9. ''The Times'', 3 February 1886
10. Hsü, Immanuel Chung-yueh. (2000). "The rise of modern China: = Zhong guo jin dai shi". Oxford University Press.
11. "Knutsford Ordination Test School Knutsford Fellowship".
12. "Councillors". Hawarden Community Council.
13. "Electoral Arrangements for Flintshire".
14. "Flintshire Record Office". Flintshire County Council.
15. (2022-07-18). "Heatwave: Wales' hottest day as temperature hits 37.1C". BBC News.
16. Edben, Philip. [http://www.jlb2011.co.uk/wales/climate.htm "Weather in Wales – The Welsh Climate."] ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', 29 May 1999.
17. (17 July 2019). "Heatwave: It's Wales hottest day ever as temperature hits 35.3C".
18. {{Cite EB1911
19. {{Cite EB1911
20. (12 January 2004). "Star's old home for sale". BBC News.