Deeside
Encyclopedia
For Strathdee in Scotland see River Dee, Aberdeenshire
Deeside (Welsh
: Glannau Dyfrdwy) is the name given to the predominantly industrial conurbation
of towns and villages that lie on, or near the River Dee
in Chester. These include, Connah's Quay
, Mancot
, Pentre
, Shotton
, Queensferry
, Sealand, Broughton
, Hawarden
, Ewloe
, Sandycroft and parts of Saltney
. The population is around 32,000, with the majority (16,526) living in Connah's Quay.
Deeside is known for its industry, providing jobs for the people of Cheshire, Merseyside & North Wales. The biggest employment area in Deeside is Deeside Industrial Park which has both historical and contemporary significance, and provides Deeside and the surrounding area with jobs in many different industries from construction to food production. Deeside is also home to steel manufacturer Corus
and aircraft manufacturer Airbus
. The Airbus factory is in Broughton, where wings are produced for the Airbus A330 and the A380. The motto of the factory in Broughton is "Without us, it's just a bus" meaning that the parts that make Airbus aircraft fly, rather than just run along the ground, are made in Deeside. Toyota's highly advanced engine manufacturing plant is located here.
In September 1896, Shotton Steelworks began producing sheet steel. The development of this steelworks on the banks of the River Dee changed an area that was once mainly marshland, with Shotton - just across the Dee - previously little more than a hamlet. Shotton Steelworks led to the development of whole communities to house the influx of workers, estimated up to 13,000 at the height of the industry, with Shotton and Connah's Quay Jetty hubs of activity serving the steelworks. There were also brickworks and other industries in and around Shotton, and Connah's Quay developed as a town on the banks of the Dee Estuary
, becoming known for its shipbuilding industry.
Secondary schools in the area include: Connah's Quay High School (Connah's Quay), John Summers High School (Queensferry) and St Davids High School (Saltney).
is a large and popular college in Connah's Quay. It offers a range of full and part-time courses as well as apprenticeships. In an inspection in 2007 the college gained the highest possible grade 1 inspection ratings for its Work Based Learning provision.
who offer services to Chester Bus Exchange from a starting point in Connah's Quay. Arriva also provide a service to Rhyl
in North Wales from Chester which passes through parts of Deeside.
Arriva provide Train services in the Deeside area. The main services are to Liverpool
and Manchester
and to Wrexham
and Rhyl
. There are also services to London
and Cardiff
which call at Deeside
but is commonly referred to by locals as the "New Bridge".
signal. This provides BBC North West
and ITV Granada
.
which broadcasts from its studio just off Sealand Road in Chester. The station is well known by locals and is regularly seen at public events, for example firework displays. Other local radio stations include BBC Radio Merseyside
and Radio City 96.7
.
River Dee, Aberdeenshire
The River Dee is a river in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It rises in the Cairngorms and flows through Strathdee to reach the North Sea at Aberdeen...
Deeside (Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
: Glannau Dyfrdwy) is the name given to the predominantly industrial conurbation
Conurbation
A conurbation is a region comprising a number of cities, large towns, and other urban areas that, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban and industrially developed area...
of towns and villages that lie on, or near the River Dee
River Dee, Wales
The River Dee is a long river in the United Kingdom. It travels through Wales and England and also forms part of the border between the two countries....
in Chester. These include, Connah's Quay
Connah's Quay
Connah's Quay is the largest town in Flintshire, North Wales, lying on the River Dee, near the border with England. It can be accessed by road from the A550, by rail from the nearby Shotton station and also lies on the National Cycle Network Route 5. It is situated near the region's industrial...
, Mancot
Mancot
Mancot is a village in south east Flintshire, Wales, approximately 1.5 miles from Queensferry, 1.2 miles from Hawarden and 5 miles from Chester...
, Pentre
Pentre
Pentre is a village and community, near Treorchy in Rhondda valley, falling within the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. The village's name is taken from the Welsh word Pentref, which translates as homestead, though Pentre is named after a large farm that dominated the area before the...
, Shotton
Shotton, Flintshire
Shotton is a town in Flintshire, north Wales, lying on the River Dee. The name derives from the Old Norse words sjò and tùn . It is continuous with the towns of Connah's Quay and Queensferry in what is called Deeside...
, Queensferry
Queensferry, Flintshire
Queensferry is a town in Flintshire, North Wales, lying on the River Dee near the border with England.Queensferry lies along the B5441 and B5129 roads, and is bypassed by the A494 dual carriageway. It is contiguous with Deeside...
, Sealand, Broughton
Broughton, Flintshire
Broughton is a small district in Flintshire, Wales, close to the Wales–England border and located to the west of the City of Chester, England. Along with the nearby village of Bretton, the total population was 5,791 at the 2001 Census....
, Hawarden
Hawarden
Hawarden is a village in Flintshire, North Wales. Hawarden forms part of the Deeside conurbation on the Welsh/English border. At the 2001 Census, the population of Hawarden Ward was 1,858...
, Ewloe
Ewloe
Ewloe is a small town in North Wales, contiguous with Hawarden and Buckley and near to Queensferry and Shotton. Situated close to the Flintshire/Cheshire sector of the Wales-England border, Ewloe forms part of Deeside. The A55 expressway passes through the town and its most notable landmark is...
, Sandycroft and parts of Saltney
Saltney
Saltney is a small town in Flintshire, Wales. It is immediately to the west of the border with Cheshire in England and is contiguous with the Chester urban area.The name is derived from the former salt marshes on which it is built, lying on the River Dee...
. The population is around 32,000, with the majority (16,526) living in Connah's Quay.
Deeside is known for its industry, providing jobs for the people of Cheshire, Merseyside & North Wales. The biggest employment area in Deeside is Deeside Industrial Park which has both historical and contemporary significance, and provides Deeside and the surrounding area with jobs in many different industries from construction to food production. Deeside is also home to steel manufacturer Corus
Corus Group
Tata Steel Europe is a multinational steel-making company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the second-largest steel-maker in Europe and is a subsidiary of Tata Steel of India, one of the ten largest steel producers in the world.Corus Group was formed through the merger of Koninklijke...
and aircraft manufacturer Airbus
Airbus
Airbus SAS is an aircraft manufacturing subsidiary of EADS, a European aerospace company. Based in Blagnac, France, surburb of Toulouse, and with significant activity across Europe, the company produces around half of the world's jet airliners....
. The Airbus factory is in Broughton, where wings are produced for the Airbus A330 and the A380. The motto of the factory in Broughton is "Without us, it's just a bus" meaning that the parts that make Airbus aircraft fly, rather than just run along the ground, are made in Deeside. Toyota's highly advanced engine manufacturing plant is located here.
Ancient history
The industrial estate still contains visible relics of Deeside's ancient history, such as the remnants of a human-made henge on a roundabout on a motorway roundabout in the Deeside Industrial Area. Shotton's history dates back around 1000 years to Saxon times.Recent history
Until industrialisation in the nineteenth century, Shotton remained a cluster of hamlets: a settlement comprising Shotton, Nine Houses and Shotton Hall, which itself dates back to 1637. Coal mining developed in the eighteenth century, then in 1889 the opening of the Hawarden Railway Bridge over the River Dee improved access to the reclaimed Dee Marshes. Following this, in 1895, the Summers family purchased 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) of Dee marshland, on which they established Shotton Steelworks.In September 1896, Shotton Steelworks began producing sheet steel. The development of this steelworks on the banks of the River Dee changed an area that was once mainly marshland, with Shotton - just across the Dee - previously little more than a hamlet. Shotton Steelworks led to the development of whole communities to house the influx of workers, estimated up to 13,000 at the height of the industry, with Shotton and Connah's Quay Jetty hubs of activity serving the steelworks. There were also brickworks and other industries in and around Shotton, and Connah's Quay developed as a town on the banks of the Dee Estuary
Dee Estuary
The Dee Estuary is a large estuary by means of which the River Dee flows into Liverpool Bay. The estuary starts near Shotton after a five miles 'canalised' section and the river soon swells to be several miles wide forming the boundary between the Wirral Peninsula in north-west England and...
, becoming known for its shipbuilding industry.
Education
Primary schools in the area include: Taliesin Junior School, Bryn Deva Primary, Wepre Primary, Dee Road Infants, Custom House Lane, Golftyn Primary, Venerable Edward Morgan, Shotton Infants, Sealand County Primary, Sandycroft County Primary and St Ethelwold's Primary School.Secondary schools in the area include: Connah's Quay High School (Connah's Quay), John Summers High School (Queensferry) and St Davids High School (Saltney).
Further Education
Deeside CollegeDeeside College
Deeside College is a further education college situated in Connah's Quay, Flintshire, North Wales. In January 2007, the college gained the highest possible grade 1 inspection ratings for its Work Based Learning provision...
is a large and popular college in Connah's Quay. It offers a range of full and part-time courses as well as apprenticeships. In an inspection in 2007 the college gained the highest possible grade 1 inspection ratings for its Work Based Learning provision.
Transport
Bus travel in Deeside is mainly provided by Arriva North WestArriva North West
Arriva North West is a division of Arriva that operates bus services around North West England. It consists of two companies: Arriva North West Ltd and Arriva Merseyside Ltd....
who offer services to Chester Bus Exchange from a starting point in Connah's Quay. Arriva also provide a service to Rhyl
Rhyl
Rhyl is a seaside resort town and community situated on the north east coast of Wales, in the county of Denbighshire , at the mouth of the River Clwyd . To the west is the suburb of Kinmel Bay, with the resort of Towyn further west, Prestatyn to the east and Rhuddlan to the south...
in North Wales from Chester which passes through parts of Deeside.
Arriva provide Train services in the Deeside area. The main services are to Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
and Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
and to Wrexham
Wrexham
Wrexham is a town in Wales. It is the administrative centre of the wider Wrexham County Borough, and the largest town in North Wales, located in the east of the region. It is situated between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley close to the border with Cheshire, England...
and Rhyl
Rhyl
Rhyl is a seaside resort town and community situated on the north east coast of Wales, in the county of Denbighshire , at the mouth of the River Clwyd . To the west is the suburb of Kinmel Bay, with the resort of Towyn further west, Prestatyn to the east and Rhuddlan to the south...
. There are also services to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
which call at Deeside
The Deeside Shuttle Bus
The Deeside Shuttle Bus is a service which enables people to travel to and from work at a time convenient to them. The Deeside Shuttle Bus allows local residents to book a seat on the bus at a time and place specified by them, which will take them to work on Deeside Industrial Park. It has proved very popular and has now grown to serve other local areas.Landmarks
The most striking landmark in Deeside is the fixed cable-stayed bridge, which was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1998. The bridge is known as the Flintshire BridgeFlintshire Bridge
The Flintshire Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge spanning the Dee Estuary in North Wales. The bridge links Flint and Connah's Quay to the north shore of the River Dee. The bridge cost £55million to construct...
but is commonly referred to by locals as the "New Bridge".
Television
The Deeside area is mainly covered by the Winter HillWinter Hill transmitting station
The Winter Hill transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications site situated on Winter Hill, at the southern boundary of the Borough of Chorley, and above Bolton in Greater Manchester, England...
signal. This provides BBC North West
BBC North West
BBC North West is the BBC English Region serving Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire, Walsden in West Yorkshire, the Isle of Man , north-west Derbyshire, the Yorkshire Dales including Settle and Ribblesdale, and southern Cumbria.BBC North West television output is also broadcast in...
and ITV Granada
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
.
Radio
The local radio station in Deeside is Chester's Dee 106.3Dee 106.3
Dee 106.3 is an Independent Local Radio station broadcasting to the city of Chester. It has its studios at 2 Chantry Court in Chester. The transmitter is on top of the Steam Mill building in Chester city centre, next to the Shropshire Union Canal and reaches much of Flintshire.It was the first...
which broadcasts from its studio just off Sealand Road in Chester. The station is well known by locals and is regularly seen at public events, for example firework displays. Other local radio stations include BBC Radio Merseyside
BBC Radio Merseyside
BBC Radio Merseyside is the BBC Local Radio service for the English metropolitan county of Merseyside and north Cheshire. It was the third BBC local radio station to launch on 22 November 1967 initially serving the south west of historic Lancashire....
and Radio City 96.7
Radio City 96.7
Radio City 96.7 is a British Independent Local Radio station, based in Liverpool, that serves Merseyside, Cheshire and North Wales...
.
Newspapers
There are three main newspapers for Deeside: these are The Evening Leader and The Chronicle. There is also a free weekly paper called the Evening Standard.Notable people from Deeside
It is notable that a significant amount of the people on this list are or were footballers. This reflects the fact that football is a common pastime in the region. Several generations of the Gladstone-Glynne family were also born in Deeside.- William Ewart GladstoneWilliam Ewart GladstoneWilliam Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
, 19th century Prime Minister of the United KingdomPrime Minister of the United KingdomThe Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
who spent his last years in the area. - Ann KeenAnn KeenAnn Lloyd Keen is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Brentford and Isleworth from 1997, until she was defeated by Conservative candidate Mary Macleod in 2010.-Early life:...
, MP for Brentford and Isleworth, born in HawardenHawardenHawarden is a village in Flintshire, North Wales. Hawarden forms part of the Deeside conurbation on the Welsh/English border. At the 2001 Census, the population of Hawarden Ward was 1,858...
. - Craig LawtonCraig LawtonCraig Thomas Lawton is a Welsh footballer who plays as a left winger for Bala Town in the Cymru Alliance.-Club career:Born in Mancot, Flintshire, Lawton began his career at Manchester United, signing his first professional contract with the club in July 1990...
, Left winger currently playing for Cymru AllianceCymru AllianceThe Huws Gray Alliance is a football league and forms the second level of the Welsh football league system in north and central Wales....
League side Bala Town F.C.Bala Town F.C.Bala Town Football Club are a Welsh football team that currently play in the Welsh Premier League. They play their games at Maes Tegid in Bala, Gwynedd, Wales...
, formerly of Manchester United. - Angus McLeanAngus McLean (footballer)Angus McLean was a football player and club manager.A solidly built centre-half who began his career with Aberystwyth Town, McLean moved on to Hilton Main before joining Wolverhampton Wanderers as an amateur in 1939....
, former manager of Hartlepool United F.C.Hartlepool United F.C.Hartlepool United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Hartlepool that currently play in League One. The team won promotion to League One in the 2006–07 season...
. - Grenville MillingtonGrenville MillingtonGrenville Rodney Millington was a professional footballer who played in The Football League as a goalkeeper. He enjoyed a long career with Chester City and was voted the club's BBC Cult Hero in 2005. Millington is now an established goalkeeping coach...
, Chester City F.C.Chester City F.C.Chester City Football Club was an English football team from Chester. The club was founded as Chester F.C., and joined the Football League in 1931, spending most of their time in the lower divisions. They changed their name to Chester City in 1983. Chester won their first league title in 2004, the...
player. - Michael OwenMichael OwenMichael James Owen is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for Manchester United.The son of former footballer Terry Owen, Owen began his senior career at Liverpool in 1996. He progressed through the Liverpool youth team and scored on his debut in May 1997...
, EnglandEngland national football teamThe England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
and Manchester United F.C.Manchester United F.C.Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...
footballer. - Gary SpeedGary SpeedGary Andrew Speed, MBE was a Welsh football player and manager. He was captain of the Wales national football team until he retired from international football in 2004 and he remains the most capped outfield player for Wales and the second overall, having appeared 85 times at senior level between...
, former footballer for Leeds United FC and Everton FC. - Henry WealeHenry WealeHenry Weale VC was a Welsh recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.-Details:...
, Victoria CrossVictoria CrossThe Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....
recipient who fought in the First World War.
