Transcribed from the 1890 Phillipson & Golder edition by David Price,
The Hawarden Visitors’ Hand-Book.
REVISED EDITION.
1890.
Chester:
Printed for the Compiler by
PHILLIPSON & GOLDER, EASTGATE ROW.
p. 2entered at stationers’ hall.
all rights reserved.
p. 3Note as to the Illustrations.
The Views of the Castle Gate and of Broughton Lodge are taken from Blocks kindly lent for the purpose of this publication by the Proprietor of the Leisure Hour. And for the Viewof the House and Flower-garden I am indebted to the courtesy of the Proprietors of Harpers Magazine.
W. H. G.
p. 4Regulations as to Hawarden Park and Old Castle.
Visitors are allowed to use the Gravel Drives through the Parkand Wood between Noon and Sunset.
Persons exceeding this permission and not keeping to the Carriage Road will be deemed Trespassers.
The Park is closed on Good Friday and Whit-Monday.
Dogs not admitted.
Excursion parties can only be received by special permission, and not later in the year than the first Monday in August.
The House is in no case shown.
p. 5Hawarden Village and Manor.
Hawarden, in Flintshire, lies 6 miles West of Chester, at a height of 250 feet, overlooking a large tract of Cheshire and theEstuary of the Dee. It is now in direct communication with the Railway world by the opening of the Hawarden and Wirral lines. It is also easily reached from Sandycroft Station, or from Queen’s Ferry, (1½ m.)—whence the Church is plainly seen—or again from Broughton Hall Station(2¼m.). The Glynne Arms offers plain but comfortableaccommodation. There are also some smaller hostelries, and a Coffee House called “The Welcome.”
The Village consists of a single street, about half a mile in length. Two Crosses formerly stood in it; the Upper and theLower, destroyed in 1641. The site of the Lower Cross, at the eastern end, is marked by a Lime tree planted in 1742. Here stood the Parish Stocks, long since perished. More durable, but grotesque in its affectation of Grecian architecture, may be seen close by, the old House of Correction. This spot is still called the Cross Tree.
The Fountain opposite the Glynne Arms is designed as a Memorial of the Golden Wedding of the Right Hon. W. E. and Mrs. Gladstone. A little lower down is the new Police Office; and further on is the Institute, containing mineralogical and other specimens, together with a good popular library.
In Doomsday Book, Hawarden appears as a Lordship, with a church, two ploughlands—half of one belonging to the church—half an acre of meadow, a wood two leagues long and half a league broad. The whole was valued at 40 shillings; yet on all this were but four villeyns, six boors, p. 6and fourslaves: so low was the state of population. It was a chief manor, and the capital one of the Hundred of Atiscross, extendingfrom the Dee to