Flintshire

Parishes

Contents

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.

Cemeteries Church History Church Records

Civil Registration Population Statistics

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

"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.

Nonconformist Churches

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.

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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 Hawarden areas.

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Civil Registration

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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