GENUKI : Flintshire, Bettisfield, St. John Baptist

Bettisfield

"A township in the parish of Hanmer, hundred of Maelor, county of Flint; four miles (E.N.E.) from Ellesmere, containing 359 inhabitants. It is situated on the border of Shropshire, and the road from Ellesmere to Whitchurch passes through it."
[A Topographical Dictionary of Wales, S. Lewis, 1834]

Bettisfield is a rural area in the south of Maelor Saesneg, which is the detached part of Flintshire.

Church History
Church Records

Civil Registration
Population

Church History

Ordnance Survey reference SJ 461360.
Bettisfield was originally in the parish of Hanmer. The parish church was an inconvenient distance away, and therefore in 1851 the Vicar and schoolmaster began to conduct Sunday evening services in the village shop for the villagers of Bettisfield. These proved very popular, and a wooden chapel was built, opening on 12 October 1851. The chapel, dedicated to St. Chad, was extended in 1852, and licensed by the Bishop, who preached there on 13 October 1852.
The present Church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, was erected at the expense of Lord Hanmer in 1874, and was consecrated by the Bishop of St. Asaph on 16 October 1878. The wooden chapel was demolished in 1875.

The Clwyd FHS website has a photograph of the church.

Bettisfield became a separate parish, within the Diocese of St. Asaph, on 24 January 1880.

Nonconformist Churches

"Welsh Church Commission - County of Flint - The Statistics of the Nonconformist Churches for 1905" lists the following nonconformist place of worship in the Civil parish of "Bettisfield":

Name of Chapel Denomination Number of "adherents"

Not named Primitive Methodist 58

Name of Chapel	Denomination	Number of "adherents"
Not named	Primitive Methodist	58

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Church Records

No parish registers or Bishop's Transcripts have been deposited.

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Nonconformist Records

The following nonconformist registers for the Bettisfield area are held at the Shropshire Record Office, Shrewsbury.
They have not been filmed; and they have not been incorporated into the I.G.I. :

Name of Chapel Denomination Type of Record Years Covered

Ebenezer
School House
Mill House Primitive Methodist Baptisms 1843 - 1988

Name of Chapel	Denomination	Type of Record	Years Covered
Ebenezer School House Mill House	Primitive Methodist	Baptisms	1843 - 1988

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Civil Registration

When Civil Registration was introduced (on 1 July 1837), the parish of Bettisfield was assigned to the No. 2 ("Hanmer") sub-district of the Ellesmere Registration District, which was co-extensive with the Ellesmere poor law Union.

In the GRO indexes to civil registration, entries for Bettisfield are in the format :

Years 1837 - 1851: Ellesmere XVIII.nnn
Years 1851 - 1930: Ellesmere 6a.nnn

(GRO index references have no relevance at the local Superintendent Registrar's Office)

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Population

In 1831- Bettisfield was not a separate parish.
In 1901- the population was 384.
[Royal Commission on the Welsh Church - October 1907]

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Last updated 4 May 2004 - Vic Roberts