Flintshire
Parishes
Contents
Flint / Y Fflint
"Flint, the nominal county town of the Shire of that name .... is beautifully situated on the estuary of the Dee, about 5 miles E.S.E. of Holywell (opposite Parkgate) and is 203 miles distant from London. It was formerly a place of considerable importance, on account of its maritime situation and its extensive fortress."
[From Gleanings of the histories of Holywell, Flint, St. Asaph and Rhuddlan, J. Poole, 1831.]
There is reason to believe that at one time Flint was a chapelry within the parish of Northop, but it has functioned as a separate parish for at least 400 years.
The townships of Leadbrook Major and Leadbrook Minor were added to the parish of Flint (from the parish of Connah's Quay) in 1872.
Cemeteries
St. Mary's churchyard was closed in 1856, by an Order in Council, and a cemetery, complete with chapel, was opened off Northop Road, a short distance to the south-west (OS ref. SJ 242728). The first burial in the cemetery was on 18 November 1856.
Until 1900, this cemetery was to all intents and purposes the "remote" churchyard of St. Mary's parish church, all burials being recorded in St. Mary's burial register.
The cemetery was extended by two acres on Friday, 13th September 1889. The Bishop of St. Asaph officiated at the consecration service, which was conducted with considerable pomp and ceremony.
At the turn of the century, maintenance of the cemetery was handed over to the local authority.
In 1941, the local authority opened a second cemetery, in London Road (OS ref. SJ 233731). Both cemeteries are still in use, and are now administered by Flintshire County Council. The opening time for each cemetery is 8.00 a.m. until sunset.
The cemetery records, from 1890 to date (Northop Road), and 1941 to date (London Road), are held at the Flintshire County offices in Flint.
Researchers who wish to see the cemetery records must make a prior appointment, by contacting :
Church History
Ordnance Survey reference SJ 243730.
The earliest recorded reference to St. Mary's Church dates from the thirteenth century. The original church was on the plan of a parallelogram. It had a north aisle, a porch, and a small wooden steeple at its west end. By 1846, the condition of the church had deteriorated so badly that it was considered to be unsafe. Permission was granted to worship in the Town Hall. The church was completely demolished and a new building, designed by the architect Ambrose Poynter, was erected on the same site. At the time, a number of old coffin lids and inscribed slabs were discovered in the foundations. The new church was consecrated on 5th December 1848. It consists of a nave, with north and south aisles, a short chancel, and a north-west clock tower with an octagonal spire.
In 1992, the local authority initiated a programme of pedestrianisation in the area around the church. During this work, some 60 memorials, mainly of the flat slab type, were discovered, many with most interesting inscriptions.
The Clwyd FHS website has a photograph of the church.
There are also two district churches - St. David, Oakenholt, which was opened in 1872; and St. Thomas, Flint Mountain, which was opened in 1875.
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 Civil parish of Flint :
| Name of Chapel |
Denomination |
Number of "adherents" |
| Tabernacle
|
Baptist
|
60
|
| Sion - Welsh
|
Congregational
|
100
|
| Not named - English
|
Congregational
|
70
|
| Caersalem
|
Calvinistic Methodist
|
200
|
| Bethania, Pentre
|
Calvinistic Methodist
|
140
|
| Cae Coch, Pentre
|
Calvinistic Methodist
|
Not stated
|
| Bryn
|
Calvinistic Methodist
|
Not stated
|
| Not named
|
English Presbyterian
|
260
|
| Not named
|
English Wesleyan
|
110
|
| Peniel, Flint
|
Wesleyan
|
250
|
| Bethel, Flint Mountain
|
Wesleyan
|
150
|
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 and marriages at the district church of St. Thomas, Flint Mountain, are recorded in the registers of St. Mary's parish church. This was also the case at the district church of St. David, Oakenholt, until fairly recently. However, St. David's now has its own registers)
| Baptisms | Marriages | Burials |
| 1598 - 1929 |
1598 - 1955 |
1598 - 1900 |
- Clwyd FHS has published full transcriptions of the registers (complete with indexes) for the following years :
| Baptisms | Marriages | Burials |
| 1598 - 1812 |
1598 - 1837 |
1598 - 1812 |
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.
| Deposited at the National Library of Wales |
Microfilmed copies |
| 1662 - 1837 |
1663 - 1837 |
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.
| Type of Record |
Years Covered |
I.G.I. Batch Number |
| Baptisms |
1820 - 1837 |
C056581 |
| Marriages |
None |
- |
Nonconformist Records
- The following nonconformist registers for the Flint 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 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 |
| Bethesda (Flint Mountain)
|
Calvinistic Methodist
|
Births and Baptisms
|
1833 - 1836
|
C098331
|
| Caersalem
|
Calvinistic Methodist
|
Births and Baptisms
|
1826 - 1837
|
C098321
|
- The following nonconformist registers for the Flint 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. :
| Name of Chapel |
Denomination |
Type of Record |
Years Covered |
| St. John's
|
Congregational
|
Baptisms, Marriages and Burials
|
1929 - 1975 (photocopies)
|
Civil Registration
When Civil Registration was introduced (on 1 July 1837), the parish of Flint was assigned to the No. 3 ("Flint") sub-district of the Holywell Registration District, which was co-extensive with the Holywell poor law Union.
In the GRO indexes, entries for Flint are found under:
- Years 1837 - 1851: Holywell XXVII.nnn
- Years 1852 - 1946: Holywell 11b.nnn
(GRO index references have no relevance in local register offices)
Population
- In 1831- the population was 2216.
- In 1901- the population was 4630.
[Royal Commission on the Welsh Church - October 1907]
Find help, report problems, and contribute information.
| Note: The information provided by GENUKI must not be used for commercial purposes; and all specific restrictions concerning usage, copyright notices, etc., that are to be found on individual information pages within GENUKI must be strictly adhered to. Violation of these rules could gravely harm the cooperation that GENUKI is obtaining from many information providers, and hence threaten its whole future. |
Last updated 4 May 2004 - Vic Roberts
