Flintshire

Parishes

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Connah's Quay

"In the hamlet of Golftyn a large quay and pier have been constructed, within the last few years, by the Irish Coal Company, and vessels sail regularly from this place for Liverpool, London, and Dublin, and the ports of North Wales. A very large ale and porter brewery, the first of the kind established in this county, was erected in the hamlet of Kelsterton, in the year 1818, and is conducted upon a very extensive scale and with great advantage to the proprietors: from this establishment part of the city of Chester, and this and the adjoining counties are supplied."
[ A Topographical Dictionary of Wales, S. Lewis, 1834]

The town of Connah's Quay began to develop some two hundred years ago, on the banks of the estuary of the River Dee, in the parish of Northop. By the mid-Victorian period, it had become a busy port, with a thriving ship-building industry.
The precise identity of "Connah" remains uncertain, despite considerable activity by researchers. The parish registers of the adjacent parish of Hawarden have entries for Connah (under various spellings) dating from the sixteenth century - it is generally believed that there is a connection.
The new parish of Connah's Quay was created on 31 January 1844, from the townships of Wepre, Golftyn, Kelsterton, Leadbrook Major and Leadbrook Minor (all formerly in the parish of Northop).
In 1872, the townships of Leadbrook Major and Leadbrook Minor were transferred to the parish of Flint.

For a map link to this place - see Maps under Northop

Bibliography

• Armstrong, John  and David Fowler.    The coastal trade of Connah's Quay in the early twentieth century      Flintshire Historical Society journal Vol. 34, (1996), p. 113-133
• Ashton, Ralph.  Twenty-four fathoms deep 'Sarah Lathom' of Connah's Quay      Cymru a'r môr, 17 (1995), p. 104-112.
• Bell, G A.     Description of a scheme for the canalization of the River Dee from Chester to Connah's Quay     Chester : Minshull and Hughes, 1861.
• Boyd, James I. C.    The Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay railway          Oxford : Oakwood Press, 1991.
• Connah's Quay          Tenterden, Kent : Estate Publications, [1994].
• Connah's Quay parish magazine.         [Connah's Quay] : Connah's Quay Parish Church, 1989
• Copp, Sue.   100 years of scouting in Connah's Quay    Wrexham : Bridge Books, 2007.
• Flintshire Towns: Connah's Quay, Holywell, Mold          Fourth revision.Tenterden : Estate Publications, 2000.
• Hawkes, G I.    The founder of the port of Connah's Quay?      Flintshire Historical Society journal, Vol. 32, (1989), p. 177-179
• Jones, W. Emyr.    Connah's Quay, Flintshire : issued with the authority of Connah's Quay Urban District Council.         Ramsgate : Norman Martell , 1971.
• Last link with Connah's Quay :      Country Quest (October 1996), p. 46-8
• Official guide to the Connah's Quay Urban District Flintshire :          Croydon : Home Publishing Co., 1945?
• Parry, Paul.     The Carters of Cornwall, Connah's Quay and Ffynnongroew      (Writings by W.E.A. Members) 10 (1989), p. 8-11
• Rules of the Connah's Quay Shipwrights' Association.          Runcorn : Woodland Bros., 1875.
• Shields, Sylvia.     Portrait of a Connah's Quay girl. Volume 2, The growing years            Connah's Quay : I*D Books, 2001.
• Smith, Janet  and J. Phillips.         A walk in Wepre Country Park, Connah's Quay        Proceedings of the Dyserth and district field club, (1997), p. 44-46
• The official guide to Connah's Quay in Flintshire / published by authority of the Urban District Council.         Cheltenham : Ed. J. Burrow & Co., [1950?]
• The Wrexham, Mold & Connah's Quay Railway.          [St. Albans, Eng.] : Oakwood Press, 1957.
• Trickett, Bernard,   David Pryce Morris, John and Maureen Coppack.       Connah's Quay, Shotton and Queensferry          [Market Drayton] : S.B. Publications, 1991.
• Whitchurch, Wrexham, Mold, and Connah's Quay Junction Railway :         [London] : [H. Kemshead, printer], 1862.

Cemeteries

• Flintshire County Council,
  Housing and Community Services,
  Cemeteries Section,
  County Offices,
  Flint,
  Flintshire.
  CH6 5BD.

  Tel: 01352 703360
  Fax: 01352 703373

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Church History

See Welsh Chapels and Churches for a photograph of St Andrews Methodist Church

"On Wednesday week, the new Church of St. Mark, at Connah's Quay, was consecrated by the Bishop of St. Asaph.
The building was raised by voluntary subscription to supply the want of church room, for the increasing population of a large district in the parish of Northop. It is calculated to hold about 600, and is finished with a neatness and taste which reflect the highest credit on all who have been concerned in its erection."
[From The Chester Chronicle of 25 August 1837]

The Parish of Connah's Quay

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 Civilparish of Connah's Quay:

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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.

Bishop's Transcripts

• Bishop's Transcripts for the years shown below have been deposited in the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth. They are entered under " Northop, St. Mark "
  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.

• The following have been incorporated into the I.G.I., as part of an "official extraction" programme.
  They were extracted from the Bishop's Transcripts, not from the Parish Registers.

Nonconformist Records

• The following nonconformist registers for the Connah's Quay area are held at the Flintshire Record Office, Hawarden.
  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 Buckley, Hawarden and Saltney areas.

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Civil Registration

Connah's Quay was transferred to the Hawarden Registration District in 1971.

In the GRO indexes to civil registration, entries for Connah's Quay are found under:

• Years 1837 - 1851: Holywell XXVII. nnn
• Years 1852 - 1946: Holywell 11b. nnn

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Description and Travel

Connah's Quay - on wikipedia

Connah's Quay Town Council

Connah's Quay - on BBC Wales

Connah's Quay - on geograph.org.uk

Population

• In 1831- Connah's Quay was not a separate parish.
• In 1901- the population was 3396.
  [ Royal Commission on the Welsh Church - October 1907]

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Statistics

Archdeacon Thomas (1911) gives the area of the parish as 2206 acres.

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Last Updated 16 Nov 2011 - Gareth Hicks