GENUKI : Flintshire, Bistre, Emmanuel

Bistre

The area was mentioned in the Domesday Book (as Biscopestrau):
"All this land belongs to Bistre. It was waste. It never paid tax, nor was it hidated. In this manor the woodland is 1 league in length and ½ league in width; there is a hawk's eyrie. The Earl has this woodland, which he has put into his forest."
[From Domesday Book; translation by Abraham Farley, 1783; published by Phillimore, 1978]

The new parish of Bistre was established in its own right on 23 May 1844, by combining most of the township of Bistre with part of the township of Argoed - both had been in the parish of Mold until that time.
Bistre now forms part of the modern town of Buckley, which developed rapidly during the nineteeth century, straddling the boundary between the ancient parishes of Mold and Hawarden.
For ecclesiastical purposes, the town is now divided between the modern parishes of Bistre and Buckley.

For a map link to this place's approximate location - see under Maps on Buckley

Bibliography
Cemeteries
Church History
Church Records

Civil Registration
Population
Statistics

Bibliography

Gruffydd, K Lloyd. Bistre in the Domesday Book Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society. No. 19 (Spring 1995), p. 3-12
Gruffydd, K Lloyd. The farms of Bistre parish, 1986. (Part One) Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society. No. 11 (March 1986), p. 7-12
Gruffydd, K Lloyd. The farms of Bistre parish, 1986. (Part 2) Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society. No. 12 (July 1987), p. 46-48.
Hodnett, Brian D. Bistre School Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society, No. 32 (Spring 2008) p. 53-60.
Hodnett, Brian D. 'A family of teachers and preachers' Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society. No. 30 (Spring 2006), p. 40-47.
Lamb, Enid. Reminiscences of Bistre Church of England School, 1943-51 Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society. No. 28 (Spring 2004), p. 27-33
Mole, Margaret. The memorials, plaques and window commemorations of Emanuel Church, Bistre, Buckley Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society, No. 20 (Spring 1996) p. 32-36
Price, Vera. Bistre church, Bistre school and me Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society, No. 33 (Spring 2009) p. 49-52

Cemeteries

In addition to the churchyard of Emmanuel parish church, and the churchyard of St. Matthew's parish church, Buckley, there is a public cemetery in Elfed Road (OS ref. SJ 276642).
The cemetery, which was opened about 1891, is still in use, and is administered by Flintshire County Council. The opening time is 8.00 a.m. until sunset.
The cemetery records, from 1891 to date, are held at the Flintshire County offices in Flint.
Researchers who wish to see the cemetery records mustmake a prior appointment, by contacting :

Flintshire County Council,
Housing and Community Services,
Cemeteries Section,
County Offices,
Flint,
Flintshire.
CH6 5BD.
Tel: 01352 703360
Fax: 01352 703373

A copy of the burial register from 1928-1982 has also been deposited in Flintshire Record Office, Hawarden.

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Church History

Ordnance Survey reference SJ 273640.
By the mid-nineteenth century, the population of the Bistre and Argoed districts of the parish of Mold was increasing rapidly; a new church was consecrated on 25 October 1842 by the Bishop of St. Asaph, to serve these areas, which were some distance from the parish church in Mold. The church is quite unusual in that it lies north and south, with the altar at the southern end.

"The parish of Mold contains a population of about 9,000, and the townships of Bistree and Argoed, within the said parish, for the benefit of which this new church has been erected, have a population of about 2,300; these townships lie from one to four miles from the parish church ..... A few years ago, like many other districts where extensive works have lately sprung up, they were thinly inhabited ....."
[From The Chester Chronicle of 4 November 1842]

The Clwyd FHS website has a photograph of the church.

Bistre Parish Churches on the Church in Wales site

Nonconformist Churches "Welsh Church Commission - County of Flint - The Statistics of the Nonconformist Churches for 1905"lists the following nonconformist places of worship in the "Urban District of Buckley". This was a Civiladministrative district, which included parts of the Ecclesiastical parish of Bistre :

Name of Chapel	Denomination	Number of "adherents"
Nantmawr - English	Baptist	100
Daisy Hill - English	Baptist	100
St. John - English	Congregational	550
Mold Road	Calvinistic Methodist	140
Zion	English Presbyterian	140
Bistre	Methodist New Connexion	400
Pentrobin	Methodist New Connexion	250
Alltami	Primitive Methodist	138
Drury	Primitive Methodist	176
Tabernacle	Primitive Methodist	500
Not named	Salvation Army	100
Brunswick - English	Wesleyan	130
Mold Road - Welsh	Wesleyan	35
The Square - English	Wesleyan	150

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Church Records

Parish Registers

The following Parish Registers have been deposited at Flintshire Record Office, Hawarden. They may be viewed on microfilm at the Flintshire Record Office, the Denbighshire Record Office, Ruthin, and the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth. These microfilms are not available elsewhere.

Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
1842 - 1964	1842 - 1974	1843 - 1950

Bishop's Transcripts

No Bishop's Transcripts have been deposited.

I.G.I.

There are no official I.G.I. entries for Emmanuel Church, Bistre.

Nonconformist Records

The following nonconformist registers for the Bistre and Buckley area are held at the Public Record Office, Kew.
They may be viewed on microfilm at LDS Family History Centres; and at the Flintshire Record Office, the Denbighshire Record Office and the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.
They have also been incorporated into the I.G.I., as part of an "official extraction" programme :

Name of Chapel	Denomination	Type of Record	Years Covered	I.G.I. Batch Number
Buckley Mountain	Independent	Births and Baptisms	1820 - 1836	C098461

The following nonconformist registers for the Buckley and Bistre area are held either at the Flintshire Record Office, Hawarden (FRO), at the Denbighshire Record Office, Ruthin (DRO), or at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth (NLW).
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	Held at
St. John's	Congregational	Baptisms, Marriages and Burials	1946 - 1982	FRO
Zion	English Presbyterian	Marriages	1899 - 1966 1973 - 1974	NLW
Providence, Bistre	Methodist New Connexion	Baptisms	1893 - 1948	FRO
Providence, Bistre	Methodist New Connexion	Baptisms	1950 - 1977	DRO
Alltami / Drury / Tabernacle, Buckley ("Circuit")	Primitive Methodist / Methodist	Baptisms	1902 - 1989	FRO
(Not named)	Wesleyan Methodist	Baptisms	1893 - 1948	FRO
(Not named)	Wesleyan Methodist	Baptisms	1950 - 1977 (photocopies)	FRO
Brunswick	Wesleyan Methodist	Baptisms	1885 - 1935	FRO
Square	Wesleyan Methodist	Baptisms	1885 - 1933	FRO

Note - many of the Methodist chapels were grouped into "Circuits", with one set of registers serving the Circuit; and it may not always be possible to identify the particular chapel in which the ceremony was performed.
Over the years, there have been several re-organisations of these Circuits in the eastern part of Flintshire. It is therefore advisable to also search the Methodist registers for the Connah's Quay and Connah's Quay and Hawarden areas.

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Civil Registration

The new parish of Bistre was assigned to the No. 4 ("Mold") sub-district of the Holywell Registration District, which was co-extensive with the Holywell poor law Union.

On 1 July 1901, Bistre was transferred to the Hawarden poor law Union (established 1853); and for civil registration purposes, it was assigned to the No. 4 (" Hawarden") sub-district of the Chester Registration District.

On 1 January 1903, the sub-district of Hawarden was upgraded to a Registration District in its own right.

In the GRO indexes to civil registration, entries for Bistre are found under:

Years 1837 - 1851: Holywell XXVII. nnn
Years 1852 - 1901: Holywell 11b. nnn
Years 1901 - 1902: Chester 8a. nnn
Years 1903 - 1946: Hawarden 11b. nnn

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

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Population

In 1831- Bistre was not a separate parish.
In 1901- the population was 4070.
[ Royal Commission on the Welsh Church - October 1907]

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Statistics

Archdeacon Thomas (1911) gives the area of the parish as 3005 acres.

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Last Updated 8 Jan 2013 - Gareth Hicks