Hawarden

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Hawarden
Welsh: Penarlâg
Hawarden (United Kingdom)
Hawarden

Hawarden shown within the United Kingdom
Population 1,858 (2001 Census)[1]
OS grid reference SJ315655
Principal area Flintshire
Ceremonial county Clwyd
Constituent country Wales
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town DEESIDE
Postcode district CH5
Dialling code 01244
Police North Wales
Fire North Wales
Ambulance Welsh
European Parliament Wales
UK Parliament Alyn and Deeside
Welsh Assembly Alyn and Deeside
List of places: UKWalesFlintshire

Coordinates: 53°10′56″N 3°01′35″W / 53.18217, -3.02647

Hawarden (pronunciation ; IPA /ˈhɑ:dən/ "Harden"; Welsh: Penarlâg) is a town in Flintshire, North Wales, approximately 5 miles (as the crow flies) from the city of Chester. Hawarden forms part of the Deeside conurbation on the Welsh/English border. At the 2001 Census, the population of was 1,858 (892 males, 966 females).[1] The total population for the greater civil parish of Hawarden, which includes Ewloe, was 13,539.[2]

Hawarden Airport is one of two public airfields in north Wales although services are intermittent, the second being at Caernarfon. Its primary function is to serve the Raytheon and BAE Systems aerospace factories in the adjacent village of Broughton, where Airbus manufacture the wings of the Airbus airliners before they are flown in a Beluga cargo aircraft to Bremen, Germany for equipping (A330/340 & A300 Wings) or Hamburg, Germany and Toulouse, France (A320 family wings) for final assembly of the complete aircraft. The wings of the A380 Airbus are too large to be flown out, and are instead transported by barge down the River Dee, to the port of Mostyn.

Hawarden railway station is on the Borderlands Line.

Monument to William Gladstone
Monument to William Gladstone

Hawarden's most famous residents are the former Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898), who lived in Hawarden Castle -- the home of his wife's family, the Glynnes; and the professional footballer Michael Owen (b. 1979) who, although born a few miles away in Chester and thus eligible to play for England, was raised in Hawarden and lived a few miles away at Northop until his transfer to Real Madrid in the summer of 2004. He has now moved back to the area after tranferring to Newcastle United F.C., and commutes by helicopter. Owen famously bought a small street of houses for his extended family in the adjacent village of Ewloe. He also owned a house in the area and grew up on Cromwell Close nearby.[3]

Gladstone bequeathed his library, now known as St Deiniol's Library, to the town.

Hawarden High School is a high school which dates back to 1606 and was attended not only by Michael Owen, but also Gary Speed, who has captained the Wales football team.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b 2001 Census: Hawarden (Ward). Office for National Statistics. Retrieved on 30 May 2008.
  2. ^ 2001 Census: Hawarden (Parish). Office for National Statistics. Retrieved on 30 May 2008.
  3. ^ Star's old home for sale. BBC News. Retrieved on 3 April 2008.