Bagillt
| Bagillt | |
 St Mary's Church in Bagillt |
|
  Bagillt Bagillt shown within Flintshire | |
| Population | 3,918 (2001 Census)[1] |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | SJ221752 |
| Principal area | Flintshire |
| Ceremonial county | Clwyd |
| Country | Wales |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | BAGILLT |
| Postcode district | CH6 |
| Dialling code | 01352 |
| Police | North Wales |
| Fire | North Wales |
| Ambulance | Welsh |
| EU Parliament | Wales |
| UK Parliament | Delyn |
| Welsh Assembly | Delyn |
| |
Bagillt (/ˈbæɡɪlt/; Welsh pronunciation: [baɡɪɬt]) is a small town, overlooking the Dee Estuary, near Holywell in Flintshire, Wales. At the 2001 Census the population was recorded as 3,918.[1]
History
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.[2]
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.[2] 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, probably around Easter 1212. 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.
Industrial Revolution
The Gadlys Lead Smelting Works was established by Edward Wright and his associates - generally Quakers - in 1704. Organised as the London Lead Company, they kept the workshop open until 1799. John Freame, one of the founders of Barclays Bank, was involved in this initiative.[3]
By the late 18th century, Bagillt had become a centre of raw-mineral extraction 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.
In 1879 a Workingman's Club and Cocoa House was built on the High Street in the Pentre area by public subscription. The building was named the Foresters Hall, an impressive three-storey red brick building of note which is supported by the Bagillt Heritage Society. The purpose of the building was to promote temperance and was originally associated with the Foresters Friendly Society. It was the first cocoa house built in Wales.
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:[4]
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.[5]
In July 1897 work commenced at Boot End, Bagillt, on the huge Milwr Tunnel which would drain water from the mines working the lead lodes under Pentre Halkyn. Digging started at a point 9 feet (2.7 m) below high-water mark on the Dee foreshore.[6] The tunnel was driven southwest at a gradient of 1:1000. It was brick lined where it passed through coal measures and shale but unlined after the first 1.5 miles where it passed through chert and limestone. In 1908 the tunnel was draining more than 1.7 million gallons of water per day through the drainage channel and into the river at Bagillt.[6]
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.[7]
Present Day
Today Bagillt and Greenfield 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.[8]
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.[9]
Amenities
Bagillt lies on a former section of the A548 road. A by-pass was built in the 1980s for the A road.
Community facilities include a few local shops, pubs and parkland.
Public Houses
There are currently only 5 open Public Houses in Bagillt. In order of From East to West
The Blossoms Hotel, The Stag Inn, The Upper Shippe, The Feathers, The Boot and Ship.
Public Houses that have shut in the last 15 years.
The White Horse, The Bagillt Arms, The Kings Ams.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 2001 Census: Bagillt, Office for National Statistics, retrieved 30 June 2008
- ↑ 2.0 2.1
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bagillt". Encyclopædia Britannica 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press - ↑ John Freame (1665-1745) accessed 18 February 2013
- ↑ Reports of the commissioners of inquiry into the state of education in Wales, appointed by the Committee of Council on Education, in pursuance of proceedings in the House of Commons on the motion of Mr. Williams, of March 10, 1846, pp. 532
- ↑ 'Hard Struggle' - pit names, BBC Wales, retrieved 29 January 2009
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Ebbs, C. "Halkyn District United Mines". Flintshire Lead Mining.
- ↑ St Mary's Church in Bagillt
- ↑ [http://www.youngflintshire.com/Flintshire%20Childcare%20Sufficiency%20Assessment%20%20Summary%20October%202008.doc. Flintshire Childcare Sufficiency Assessment 2004/05], retrieved 29 January 2009
- ↑ Crime Figures: Bagillt East, North Wales Police, retrieved 29 January 2009
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bagillt. |
- Bagillt History Club
- Photos of Bagillt and surrounding area on geograph.org.uk
- St Mary's & St Peter's Church Bagillt
- Bagillt in the Domesday Book
- Bagillt Heritage Society
- Bagillt Community Council