Hawarden facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Hawarden Welsh: Penarlâg
Gladstone memorial fountain and Glynne Arms
Hawarden
Population	1,887 (Ward) (2011 census)
OS grid reference	SJ315655
Community	Hawarden
Principal area	Flintshire
Ceremonial county	Clwyd
Country	Wales
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	DEESIDE
Postcode district	CH5
Dialling code	01244
Police	North Wales
Fire	North Wales
Ambulance	Welsh
EU Parliament	Wales
UK Parliament	Alyn and Deeside
Welsh Assembly	Alyn and Deeside
Website	hawardencommunitycouncil.gov.uk
List of places UK Wales Flintshire 53°10′55″N 3°01′12″W / 53.182°N 3.02°W / 53.182; -3.02

Hawarden (ⁱ/ˈhɑːrdən/; Welsh: Penarlâg) is a village and community in Flintshire, Wales. It is part of the Deeside conurbation on the Wales-England border and is home to Hawarden Castle. In the 2011 census the ward of the same name had a population of 1,887, whereas the community of the same name, which also includes Ewloe (which also has a castle) Mancot and Aston had a population of 13,920. The scenic wooded Hawarden Park abuts the clustered settlement in the south. Hawarden Bridge consists of distribution and industrial business premises beyond Shotton/Queensferry and the Dee. The west of the main street is called The Highway, its start marked by the crossroads with a fountain in the middle, near which are public houses, some with restaurants.

The village is 7 miles (11 km) from Chester. In 2014 it was named in The Sunday Times' annual Best Places To Live List.

The highest temperature in Wales was recorded in Hawarden on 18 July 2022 at 37.1°C. The previous highest temperature recorded in Wales, 35.2°C, 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 on 18 July 2022, first breaking the Welsh record, after which Hawarden surpassed Gogerddan.

Etymology

Both the English and Welsh names of the village allude to its elevated geographical position. English Hawarden /ˈhɑːrdən/ 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 [ˌpɛnarˈlaːɡ] 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 (publisher) states 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 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 as it formed part of the County Palatine of Chester whereupon Hawarden Castle was built that 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 with Simon de Montford in 1264 who led a brief rebellion against Henry III of England and agreed to betroth to Llewllyn his daughter 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, due to Edward's successful campaign (imposing exacting terms on the Welsh, building Flint Castle and strengthening others) in 1282 Llewellyn's brother Davydd slew the garrison to wrench the castle back and took Roger de Clifford to remote Snowdon. This second recapture of the castle triggered Edward's slaying of Llewellyn and annexation of Wales. The castle was a prized possession onward, see Hawarden Castle.

The village of Saltney (focussed next to Chester, but in Wales) was part of the parish.

19th Century

Prime minister William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) born in Liverpool, later lived in Hawarden Castle, the home of his wife's family, the Glynne baronets as in the Glorious Revolution, Serjeant Glynne acquired it. 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 large parish (today's community is about 1/3 of the size) involved the markets, many useful seams of coal, the making of tiles, bricks and drainage pipes and chemical, particular 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. Margarets Church, Westminster - a society wedding attended by the Prince of Wales.

Gladstone bequeathed his library, now known as Gladstone's Library (having been renamed from St Deiniol's Library in 2010), to the town.

Michael Owen

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, in his later career, lived 4 miles (6.4 km) west at Northop until his transfer to Real Madrid in the summer of 2004. He moved back to the area after transferring to Newcastle United and subsequently Manchester United, often commuting by helicopter. Owen famously bought a small street of houses for his extended family in the larger village of Ewloe. He also owned a house in the area and grew up on Cromwell Close nearby.

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.

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

Transport

Close towns include Connah's Quay 3 miles (4.8 km), Mold 6 miles (9.7 km), Flint 7 miles (11 km) and the city of Wrexham 11 miles (18 km).

Hawarden railway station is on the Borderlands line with services direct to Birkenhead to the north and to Wrexham 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 miles (3.2 km) east of the village.

Nearest Settlements

	across Aston and Wepre Park Connah's Quay	across Mancot: Queensferry, Shotton	Sandycroft, Queensferry
	Ewloe		Chester
		Hawarden
	Buckley	across Hawarden Park and Hawarden Golf Course Penyffordd	Broughton

Notable residents

Monument to William Gladstone

• 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.