Flintshire

Parishes

Contents

Buckley

"Buckley is in the County of Flint, North Wales. The neighbouring towns are Chester, 8 miles, Flint 6, Mold 3, and Hawarden 2. It is situated on an eminence about 500 feet above sea level. The River Dee flows 3½ miles below, and the mouth of the Dee and Irish Sea are in view to the North-west. As the breezes blow mainly from that point, its position is rendered very healthful and invigorating. Looking west and south there is a splendid view of the Clwydian range of mountains, Caergwrle castle, etc. The population is about 7000, and its industries are coal-mining, the manufacture of fire-clay bricks, tiles, etc., and pottery earthenware. A century ago it was but a straggling village of a score or so of mud and stone straw-thatched cottages, but coal was mined here 200 years since. ..... With one or two honourable exceptions, the district has never received the assistance it might have had from its absentee landlords and employers. But there are some in its midst, possessed of considerable influence and ability, who are devoting themselves loyally to its needs. May they long remain in its service."
[From Official Programme - Buckley Jubilee Day Festivities, 8 July 1902]

The town of Buckley 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 parishes of Buckley and Bistre.

Bibliography  

N.B. The entries below represent only a selection of articles published in   Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society - for further material search the NLW  Book catalogue

• Altounyan, Caroline A.       Buckley : Part I        Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society, No. 22 (Spring 1998) p. 12-23 
• Altounyan, Caroline A.         Buckley : Part II         Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society. No. 23 (Spring 1999), p. 8-14
• Bentley, James.        Buckley bedroom furniture        Clwyd Historian = Hanes Bro Clwyd. No. 20 (April 1988), p. 15-18
• Bentley, James.        'The Butcher's Pit', Buckley      Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society, No. 24 - Millennium issue (Spring 2000) p. 34.
• Bithell, Sid.         A Buckley man       Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society, No. 34 (Spring 2010) p. 60-76.
• Buckley pottery : [text by Sheila Tyler].         Llandudno : Mostyn Art Gallery, 1983.
• Chesters, J I.        The Buckley Art Society         Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society. No. 16 (Spring 1992), p. 36-46
• Cole,  J. R.  and Derrick Pratt.     Capel Spon, Buckley, Clwyd       Archaeology in Wales, Vol. 33 (1993), p. 25-30
• Connolly, Andrew.    Buckley through the eyes of newspapers        Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society, No. 31 (Spring 2007) p. 3-7.
• Cropper, Thomas.      Buckley & district           New.         [Mold] : Clwyd Library and Museum Service, 1987.
• Davies, P.G.,  C.J. Dawson, J.R. Thomas.         The Buckley Railway album and associated industries      [S.l.] : Buckley Society, c2007.
• Dawson, Chris.        The barbers of Buckley       Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society, No. 32 (Spring 2008) p. 10-13.
• Duckworth, Charles.      Bringing water to Buckley     Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society, No. 20 (Spring 1996) p. 24-25
• Duckworth, Charles.         Bygone Buckley and the outside world       Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society. No. 10 (Apr. 1985), p. 8-9
• Dunn, Neville.            The Buckley       Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society, No. 35 (Spring 2011) p. 9-14
• Dunn, Neville.      A Buckley hymnist and other family composers          Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society, No. 33 (Spring 2009) p. 41-48
• Dunn, Neville.           Buckley's Duke of York Inn tunnel       Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society. No. 29 (Spring 2005), p. 58-68
• Ellis, Bryn.              The Buckley Brick and Tile Company          Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society. No. 10 (Apr. 1985), p. 10-13
• Foulkes, J.     Buckley Brickyards in the 1880s         Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society. No. 30 (Spring 2006), p. 14.
• Gregory, Harold              The Little Mountain colliery, Buckley            Flintshire Historical Society journal, Vol. 23 1967/8      Welsh Journals Online
• Gregory, Harold G            The distillation of oil from cannel coal and shales          Flintshire Historical Society journal, Vol. 25 1971/72     Welsh Journals Online
• Gruffydd, K. Lloyd.       A brief study of some early Buckley families     Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society. No. 23 (Spring 1999), p. 24-33
• Gruffydd, K. Lloyd.      Aspects of Buckley's social history as seen through school log books. Part I, (1863-1870)    Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society, No. 24 - Millennium issue (Spring 2000) p. 94-96
• Gruffydd, K. Lloyd.      Aspects of Buckley's social history as seen through school log books. Part 2, (1871-1884)        Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society. No. 27 (Spring 2003), p. 3-8 
• Gruffydd, K. Lloyd.      Aspects of Buckley's social history as seen through school log books. Part 3, (1885-99)       Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society. No. 28 (Spring 2004), p. 49-53 
• Gwyndaf, Robin  [and] Eirlys Gruffydd.       A Buckley pot used as a charm         Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society. No. 10 (Apr. 1985), p. 14-16
• Hodges, Phil.               A brief history and development of the Buckley Heritage Trail     Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society. No. 25 (Spring 2001), 61-64
• Hodnett, Brian D.         Buckley's forgotten cemetary       Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society, No. 31 (Spring 2007) p. 8-11.
• Hodnett, Brian D.    Buckley's royal connection        Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society, No. 24 - Millennium issue (Spring 2000) p. 97
• Jackson, Ephraim.        Buckley Bakeries, 1929-1939         Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society. No. 29 (Spring 2005), p. 51-54.
• Johnson, G.       The Buckley telephone exchange, 1896-1936       Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society. No. 29 (Spring 2005), p. 17-18
• Jones, J Clifford          A history of the schools and education in Buckley          Flintshire Historical Society journal, Vol.15  1954/5   Welsh Journals Online
• Kelsall, Charles.       The Buckley Junction Metallic Brick Company        Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society, No. 33 (Spring 2009) p. 53-56
• Kelsall, P.      Buckley soldiers from the Great War. Part 1        Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society. No. 29 (Spring 2005), p. 36-46
• Kelsall, Peter.     Buckley soldiers from the Great War. Part 2      Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society. No. 30 (Spring 2006), p. 21-32
• Kelsall, Richard.       Buckley boy who 'showed' the way       Country Quest 29/8 (1989), p. 36-7
• Kinnear, John.         The Buckley dialect      Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society. No. 12 (July 1987), p. 29-33
• Lewis, Geraint.          Buckley - before her pride      Country Quest 26/9 (1986), p. 36
• Messham, J E            The Buckley Potteries        Flintshire Historical Society journal, Vol.16  1956     Welsh Journals Online
• Messham, J E           A Ewloe bailiff's account and the origins of the Buckley pottery industry        Flintshire Historical Society journal, Vol. 32  1989     Welsh Journals Online  
• Messham. J E             Conflict on Buckley Common            Flintshire Historical Society journal, Vol. 32  1989     Welsh Journals Online  
• Messham, J E       Conflict at Buckley collieries; the strike at the Elm and Maesygrug, 1884/5      Flintshire Historical Society journal, Vol. 33  1992    Welsh Journals Online  
• Roberts, Dewi.            Beautiful Buckley       Country Quest. (February 2005), p. 12-13
• Roberts, Gladys Lloyd.          Buckley Council School, Padeswood Road, Buckley         Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society. No. 30 (Spring 2006), p. 49
• Stanley, Gerald.     The butchers' shops of Buckley         Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society, No. 34 (Spring 2010) p. 48-49.
• The Buckley dialect        Buckley: the magazine of the Buckley Society, No. 32 (Spring 2008) p. 16-18.

Cemeteries

• 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

"A plain but handsome Gothic structure, embracing an area within sixty-eight feet, by forty-four feet, without pillars, which is divided into three aisles, Middle, North, and South .....
On Wednesday the 25th of September, 1822, the ceremony of consecration took place at this Church; the day was favourable, and from the best observations it was calculated that near two thousand people were assembled ....."
[From A Memoir of Hawarden Parish, Richard Willett, 1822]

The Clwyd FHS website has a photograph of the church.

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 Buckley :

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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, and the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth. These microfilms are not available elsewhere.

Bishop's Transcripts

• Bishop's Transcripts for the years shown below have been deposited in the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.
  Around the year 1951, most of the Bishop's Transcripts which had been deposited at that time were microfilmed by the LDS; and the films are available on request at Family History Centres of the LDS.
  The films may also be viewed at the Flintshire and Denbighshire Record Offices, and at the National Library of Wales.
  In general, the Bishop's Transcripts are less complete than the parish registers.

I.G.I.

• There are no official I.G.I. entries for St. Matthew's, Buckley.

It should be noted that until 1874, when it became a separate parish, the ecclesiastical district of Buckley did not have specifically defined boundaries within the parish of Hawarden, and its parishioners had the option to be baptised, married or buried in any church of the parish of Hawarden, subject to the consent of the incumbent.

When researching the years 1822 to 1874, a thorough search of all the registers of the parish of Hawarden, especially those of the nearby church of Pentrobin and the parish church in Hawarden, is therefore advisable!

Nonconformist Records

• The following nonconformist registers for the Buckley and Bistre 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 :

• 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. :

• 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

On the 1st January 1870, the Great Boughton registration district was re-named as Chester.

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 Buckley are found under:

• Years 1837 - 1851: Gt. Boughton XIX. nnn
• Years 1852 - 1869: Gt. Boughton 8a. nnn
• Years 1870 - 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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Description and Travel

Buckley - on wikipedia

Buckley Town Council

Buckley - on BBC Wales

Buckley photographs - on geograph.org.uk

History

Buckley Society

Maps

Population

• In 1831- Buckley was not a separate parish.
• In 1901- the population was 2949.
  [ Royal Commission on the Welsh Church - October 1907]

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Statistics

Archdeacon Thomas (1911) gives the area of the parish as 2048 acres.

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Last Updated 16 April 2012 - Gareth Hicks