Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for FLINT

FLINT, a town, a parochial chapelry, and a sub-district, in Holywell district, Flintshire. The town stands on the estuary of the Dee, at the ferry to Parkgate, and on the Chester and Holyhead railway, 12½ miles NW of Chester. It is thought, by some antiquaries, to occupy the site of a Roman station, or at least to have had some fortress at a very early period; but it first comes into distinct notice in connexion with a castle begun by Henry II., and finished by Edward I.; and it probably got its name either from some early manufacture of flint glass at it, or from the abundance of siliceous rock in its neighbourhood. It gives name to the county, and was originally the county town; but, as respects at least the seat of assizes, it has been superseded by Mold; and it is now little better than a mere village, and not a very pleasant one. It consists chiefly of two streets, and is irregularly built; but it is the place of election for the county, and a polling-place, a seat of petty sessions, and a sub-port to Chester; and it has a head post office, ‡ a railway station, a town-hall, a jail, a church, five dissenting chapels, a national school, alms-houses, and large part of its ancient castle. The town hall is a handsome modern edifice. The jail was built in 1785, and contains 16 cells, 6 day-rooms, and 6 airing-courts. The church was built in 1848, on the site of a previous one; and is an elegant edifice, with a spire. The castle stands on a low freestone rock, washed by the Dee; and was originally united to the town by a drawbridge. It was the meeting-place of Edward II. with Piers Gaveston; was taken by Llewelyn; was given by Edward III. to the Black Prince; passed to the De Veres and the Earl of Northumberland; was the place of the betrayal of Richard II. to Bolingbroke, and in that connexion has been im - mortalized by Shakspeare; was garrisoned, for Charles I., by Sir Roger Mostyn; suffered capture, after a long siege, by Sir W. Brereton; was retaken for the king, and captured again by General Mytton; and was dismantled, by order of parliament, in 1647. It forms a square court, truncated at the corners, with a large round tower at each of three of the corners, and with a massive keep, called the double tower, detached from the main building, but structurally communicating with it by a draw-bridge. This keep probably got its name from having concentric walls, with intermediate gallery opening into a central area of fully 22 feet in diameter; and it is by far the most interesting portion of the existing ruin. The castle, as a whole, has a crumbling aspect, and now wants portions of towers and wall which have been under-mined by the sea; yet it retains enough both of bulk and character, to make it an instructive specimen of the architecture of its age, and to show that its military strength was not small. The town had once considerable commerce, but lost great part of it by the gradual silting up of the estuary; and it once had also considerable inland trade, but lost much of this by the removal of the county business to Mold. Yet, in consequence of the establishment at it of large alkali and smelting works, and of the erection of a new wharf, it has, of late years, undergone considerable revival, in so much that vessels frequent it to discharge their cargoes into small craft for conveyance to Chester. A weekly market is held on Saturday; and fairs are held on the first Tuesday of Feb., 3 May, 4 July, and 3 Nov. The town was made a borough by Edward I.; is governed, under the new act, by a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors; and unites with St. Asaph, Caer-gwrle, Caerwys, Holywell, Mold, Overton, and Rhuddlan, in sending a member to parliament. The borough boundaries, both municipal and parliamentary, comprise Flint chapelry and Coleshill-fawr township. Pop. in 1851, 3, 296; in 1861, 3, 428. Houses, 768. -The chapelry contains 1, 514 acres of land and 1, 125 of water. Real property, £8, 676; of which £1, 015 are in mines, and £100 in gas-works. Pop., 3, 088. Houses, 688. The property is not much divided. A famous ancient cross, the shaft of which still exists, stood at Croes-Ati, about a mile from the town, on the lower road to Chester; and some interesting Roman antiquities, lead scoriæ, and traces of furnaces have been found there. The living is a rectory in the diocese of St. Asaph. Value, £311.* Patron, the Bishop of St. Asaph. The sub-district includes also Halkin and Northop parishes. Acres, 18, 145. Pop., 8, 079. Houses, 1,806.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, a parochial chapelry, and a sub-district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Flint CP/AP/Ch       Holywell RegD/PLU       Flintshire AncC
Place: Flint

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