Lower Reaches



We have divided the story of the River Dee into three parts:

Upper Reaches
From the source of the river at springs on the slopes of Dduallt above Llanuwchllyn in the mountains of Snowdonia, through Wales, to its emergence from the Vale of Llangollen; here the young river flows swiftly and the majority of erosion takes place, cutting relatively narrow, steep-sided, "V"-shaped valleys, often with interlocking spurs.

Middle Reaches
Through England and the Welsh borders to Chester; the "middle aged" river slows down and the valley becomes broader. Both erosion and deposition of material takes place, leading to the formation of meanders and occasional changes of course which have in cases left pockets of England "stranded" on the Welsh side of the River Dee.

Lower Reaches
Back in Wales, below Chester to Hilbre Islands and the sea; the river is now in "old-age" and while there is little erosion a lot of material is deposited. In the case of the River Dee this deposition has had a significant impact on the economic development of Chester, effectively turning a major port into a relatively quiet backwater. The estuary is important for birdlife and has been designated both as a "Site of Special Scientific Interest" and under the "Ramsar Convention" on "Wetlands of International Importance", especially as waterfowl habitats.

Estuarine Silting
The water has never been sufficient to scour out an adequate navigation channel through the deep glacial silt. Man has also probably contributed to the silting up of the Dee. At one time the Dee Mills, owned by the earls of Chester, operated 11 waterwheels and also constructed a weir across the river at Chester, which reduced the tidal limit and the scour of the river. It is also possible that upland deforestation in Wales altered drainage patterns and also contributed to the silting. Other causes of estuarine silting may have included the extraction of water into the canals during the "canal mania" period of investment history. However the real damage seems to have been brought about by the construction of the canalised section of the Dee in the 1730's. The interests of the builders of this waterway seem to have been far more concerned with the reclamation of land which could then be sold, rather than the improvement of the port of Chester. In it's lower reaches, the geography of the Dee shows the unmistakable effects of the hand of mankind. Just how much land has been reclaimed from the sea is shown in the map above, where the blue line shows the limits of the original estuary. It can also be seen how the Welsh border, crossing the Dee between Saltney and what was once the promontory of "Blacon Point" follows the original coastline. As this map shows, a rise in sea level caused by global warming would put much of the reclaimed land back under water (note how only modern settlements are in the flooded areas and the older roads follow the "coastline"). On the positive side, the silting of the lower estuary has created a major bird sanctuary, which is one of the United Kingdom's premier birding locations for wetland and shorebirds.

There are two sides to the estuary, a Welsh side and and English side, a side of boom and a side of bust. There is the ebb and flow of the river, of history and of economic cycles, mirrored in the narrow place the earth occupies between green-house and ice-house. We do not know what the future holds, whether the Dee will continue to silt so that sea becomes land, or that global warming will raise sea-levels such that land once more becomes sea. Over geological time the sun has brightened, warming our world, but on earth, the gradual locking up of carbon in coal, oil and limestone has removed "greenhouse gas" from our atmosphere and maintained a shaky equilibrium disturbed by the wobble of the planet's orbit and the occasional catastrophe. Fortunes have been made, and lives spent, bringing this buried carbon back to the surface - as coal, oil or gas. Above the river, coursing across the navigational stars, the neighbouring planets Venus and Mars tell something of different fates. Venus, Earth's near twin, yet a little closer to the sun, has fallen foul of a runaway green-house and broils in a sulphurous hell that would melt lead. Mars, just too far out, lies locked in an age of icy and rusty deserts.

The Old Port
Crane Wharf showing the remains of the old dock under the boardwalk. (Dennis Turner) Crane Wharf showing the remains of the old dock under the boardwalk. (Dennis Turner)

It has been suggested that in the Dark Age Chester the main harbour may have been above the present weir at The Groves. From Norman times an important anchorage developed to the south of Chester Castle and explains the location of the medieval Shipgate. As silting continued (and ships drew more draught) the harbour moved progressively downriver. The most upriver remains of docks can now be seen at New Crane Bank below the boardwalk installed in the 2000's. John McGahey's "View of Chester from a Balloon" shows the Old Port c.1855. The Old Port has been linked to the Groves by the Riverside Promenade Heritage Trail. Hemminway (Vol II, page 301) records the following as regards the port of Chester:


 * That the Dee was navigable for vessels of great burden from the sea up to Chester in very ancient times is beyond all doubt and it is equally certain that early in the 14th century the navigation had been materially impeded by the shifting of the sands. The first notice we have of the latter circumstance is contained in letters patent of Richard II who releaseth to the citizens £73 10s 8d parcel of the £100 for the fee farm reserved by the charter of Edward I which the city was in arrears in which also is assigned as the reason of this indulgence the ruinous estate of the city and of the haven. Henry VI in confirming all the former charters of the city recites what great concourse in times past as well by strangers as others has been made with merchandise into this city by reason of the goodness of the port thereof and also what great trading for victuals into and out of Wales to the great profit of the city and then shows how the same port of Chester was lamentably decayed by reason of the abundance of sands which had choaked the creek and for these considerations released to the city £10 of the fee farm reserved by Edward I.

Chester was not only a port but a noted centre for ship building. In the "Magna Britannia" (1810) is written:


 * There are now more ships built at Chester than at Liverpool, they being in great estimation among the merchants at that and other principal sea ports of England and Scotland as particularly well founded and in the mariner's phrase "sea-worthy".

The history of the canalisation of the Dee can be found on the page describing the history of Chester as a port.

Saltney and Blacon Point


Saltney is part in Wales and part in England, as can be seen here the border runs straight through the middle of the town, past the now disused (and in fact completely traceless) station. But Saltney is far older than the railway: the fringes of the great salt-marsh at Saltney were the traditional camping spot for armies heading for an invasion of Wales under Henry II (1157) and Edward I (1277). The name "Saltney" may hint at Viking origins in the form of "Island of Salt", which could refer to a settlement on a dry patch in a salt marsh. Even earlier, the Romans of Chester would have found an extra-mural settlement here, although the buildings seem to have been little more than rough stone huts. In Roman and earlier times the Dee estuary came this far inland, curving around the headland to the north known as "Blacon Point". The monks of Basingwerk:


 * "..possessed the marsh of Saltney for pasturage, it having been granted by Robert, lord of Mold, who bestowed on them the like privilege in Hawarden, and also that of cutting rushes to thatch their buildings. The tract extended into Cheshire, and a stone near the east end marked the boundary in that county."

There was once a ford at Saltney, said to be reachable by a difficult path through the marshes between Blacon and Saltney and only usable at low-water. The best known river-crossing hereabouts was at Saltney Ferry, established by the Manifold family c.1740 and run by the same family until it's closure in 1968. Mike Griffith's book (see list below) contains a wealth of information on the last father and son to operate this ferry, and the ferry steps can still be seen besides the modern footbridge. In 1768 Sir John Glynne's Canal was cut for the one mile between Bretton and Saltney (it closed in 1779). Richard Willett's "Memoir of Hawarden parish, Flintshire" gives an account of the early chemical industry in Saltney:


 * In the year 1781 Mr Tharp a button manufacturer in Chester purchased a small allotment upon the lately enclosed Saltney Marsh and near to Big Mancott lane end where he erected "the Chemistry". To this place he sent down his refuse horn and bones from which he extracted Glauber's salts and sal ammoniac and ground down the calcined residuum into ivory black.

In the 1840's "Railway Mania" became the latest speculative craze. It followed a familiar pattern. The price of railway shares increased and money was poured in by speculators, until the inevitable collapse. In 1846, no fewer than 272 Acts of Parliament were passed, setting up new railway companies, and the proposed routes totalled 9,500 miles (15,300 km) around a third of which were never built. Many companies collapsed due to poor financial planning, or turned out to be a fraudulent schemes. The line in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark: "They threatened its life with a railway share", is a reference to the Railway Mania and those who lost money investing in it. Little is left of Saltney Wharf other than bollards on the grassy bank. (John Turner) Little is left of Saltney Wharf other than bollards on the grassy bank. (John Turner)

The new industrial zone at Saltney was related directly to the arrival of the railway. It developed rapidly into the city's most vibrant industrial area in the mid 19th century and made a large contribution to diversifying Chester's economic base. The trigger for its growth was the opening by the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway in 1846 of a wharf on the Dee adjacent to the railway junction with the Chester and Holyhead line. Industrial development began in 1847 with the establishment of Henry Wood & Co.'s anchor, chain, and general engineering works. The firm had been founded in Stourbridge (Worcs.) in 1786. The Saltney works, on Boundary Lane, had both a railway siding and access to Saltney wharf. A number of other firms followed Wood's to Saltney. Lloyd's Cambrian Chain and Anchor Testing Co., was set up in 1866. By 1870 three oil refineries were in operation, of which the largest was the Flintshire Oil & Cannel Co. at St. David's Oil Works. The others were E. S. Rogers & Co.'s British Oil Works and the Dee Mineral Oil Co., set up in 1869. They mostly processed crude oil produced from cannel coal in the Flintshire coalfield, and were part of an industry which boomed locally from 1858 to the 1880s. The "Sal Ammonionic" (sic) works was operating in Saltney as early as 1843, and in 1856 Proctor and Ryland moved there from Birmingham and opened a bone manure works on the riverside.

The railway also brought industry to Saltney on its own account. The Shrewsbury and Chester Railway established its locomotive and carriage works there in 1847, and after the company was acquired by the Great Western in 1854, the latter moved its standard-gauge carriage and wagon works from Wolverhampton to Saltney. The Victoria Waggon Co. was also operating at Saltney by 1860, though it had closed by 1870. Furthermore the goods yards at Mold Junction became the main concentration and distribution point for roofing slates from the north Wales quarries. Saltney's population grew from 554 in 1841 to 1,901 in 1871 as a result of the area's industrial development. It had reached a population of 4,769 at the 2001 Census.

Saltney's oil boom has ended now and most of the original industries are long-gone. It's docklands have become home to "marginal" industries: car-breakers, scrapyards, useful one-man garages where a skilled welder works alone. Decaying wharfs, the odd pill-box decorated with fading graffiti leaving open the puzzle of just it was guarding, inlets choked with dark oily mud and the occasional wreck of someone's nautical hope. The people are friendly enough, and keen to talk to the passing historian, but there is the feeling here that the river passes by, trapped in it's straight cut, and takes little part in local life.

Hawarden and Sealand
A wreck (by John S Turner) A wreck (by John S Turner) Poster advertising the "Royal Charter" Poster advertising the "Royal Charter"

The river passes on, tamed and bound by it's artificial banks, straight as a knife's edge. There was shipbuilding all down this reach once. Chester ship Royal Charter (Sandycroft Ironworks, 1855) - was built here, and was so large that she had to be slid into the river sideways. She was a new type of ship, a 2719 ton, steel-hulled steam clipper, built in the same way as a clipper ship but with engines for use when becalmed. A fast ship, she was able to make passage to Australia in under 60 days. Royal Charter was wrecked (October 26 1859) in a "force-12" hurricane off Anglesey. Returning from Melbourne with 388 passengers, a crew of 112, and a cargo of gold valued at £300,000, her passengers included gold miners who had struck it rich in Australia and were carrying large sums of gold upon them. Many were said to have drowned weighed down by the belts of gold they wore. Charles Dickens (in his "Uncommercial Traveller") gives a vivid illustration of the force of the gale:

So tremendous had the force of the sea been when it broke the ship, that it had beaten one great ingot of gold, deep into a strong and heavy piece of her solid iron-work: in which also several loose sovereigns that the ingot had swept in before it, had been found, as firmly embedded as though the iron had been liquid when they were forced there.

A quantity of gold was said to have been thrown onto the coast near Moelfre, with some families becoming rich overnight. Brunel's later-launched steamship the Great Eastern, then standing off Holyhead harbour on sea trials, survived the same gale, now known as the "Royal Charter Storm". Brunel (who also invented the bar) had died a few weeks earlier, worn out by construction of the ship and finished-off by news of a boiler explosion. At Eastern's breaking-up (at Rock Ferry, in 1889–1890) Liverpool Football Club purchased her top mast as a flag pole - it still stands there today, on the corner of the Kop and Centenary Stand. The storm inspired FitzRoy (captain of HMS Beagle during Charles Darwin's famous voyage) to develop charts to allow predictions to be made, which he called "forecasting the weather".

A modern day Leviathan of the skies is often seen hereabouts in the form of the Airbus Beluga, a version of the standard A300-600 wide-body airliner modified to carry aircraft parts and over-sized or awkward cargo. It is a frequent visitor to the aircraft factory at Broughton. Airbus wings produced in Broughton are flown out in Belugas with the exception of the large A380 wings which are transported by barge along the river Dee to Mostyn docks. The transport barge is called the the Afon Dyfwydwy (River Dee) and made it's first trip in April 2004 after extensive surveys. The tide has flood coming very quickly and ebb taking longer than expected. This means that strict vessel-movement planning is needed to ensure sufficient water to move against the tidal stream and clear the bridges. During these surveys is was discovered that the navigable channel sometimes moves 20 to 30 metres between tides.

RAF Sealand was originally a civilian airfield founded in 1917 when a local mechanic and entrepreneur Tom Dutton began a private flying school on fields rented from the John Summers Steelworks. It was taken over by the military in 1916 for training (Tom never did get it back). It was from these hangars that the young pilots learned the skills to take on the might of the Luftwaffe in Sopwith Camels over the trenches of Northern France in the Great War and a generation later in Spitfires and Hurricanes to repel the bombing raids of the Blitz. No 30 Maintenance unit was formed there in 1939. In 1951 the base was taken over by the United States Air Force, and handed back to the RAF in 1957. As a result of defence cuts announced in 2004, RAF Sealand was closed in April 2006.

Hawarden contains two castles; one rebuilt by Edward I, the other once the home of William Gladstone, four times British Prime Minister. The defensive works at old Hawarden Castle appear to date back in part to the Iron Age. At Easter 1282, Dafydd ap Gruffudd attacked Hawarden Castle, starting the last Welsh conflict with the Normans, as a consequence of which Welsh independence was lost. Edward I personally designed a special punishment for Dafydd and had him hanged, drawn, and quartered in Shrewsbury in October 1283. The castle was again captured in 1294 during the revolt of Madog ap Llywelyn. During the Civil War, it was at first garrisoned by Royalist troops who maintained control except for a brief time in 1643, and then until March 1646, when the castle was surrendered to Parliamentary forces. Afterwards the castle was slighted on the orders of Cromwell. Its ruins are on the New Hawarden Castle estate and are open to the public on some Sundays, typically the second and fourth Sundays in summertime.

Queensferry
The Dee fords downstream from Chester were destroyed by the cutting of a new river channel, and were replaced by two ferries. Under an Act of 1744 the River Dee Company was to supply the boats and maintain the roads leading to them. The Higher Ferry was at Saltney. The lower ferry was originally called King's Ferry, but was renamed Queen's Ferry (later giving rise to the place name Queensferry) after Victoria became queen in 1837. Both ferries were eventually superseded. The Victoria Jubilee toll bridge opened in 1897 to replace the lower ferry. In 1926 it was rebuilt and made free of toll and in 1962 it was supplemented by the Queensferry bypass bridge. When the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company constructed the line over the River Dee near Queensferry, between 1887 and 1889, a swing opening mechanism was incorporated to allow vessels to access the industrial areas, and Chester, further upstream. The 752t, 287ft span was the largest (by 36ft) of its kind in Britain at the time. The total cost of the bridge was £71,000. Although in its early days of operation it was necessary to open the Hawarden Swing Bridge about 11 times a week, river traffic fell to such a degree that in 1971 the swing mechanism was decommissioned and the bridge closed. It is now welded shut.

Off again
The steelworks head office The steelworks head office

Past the Pink Flats; Tide out; last big bend; Past the pillbox; straight on..; and on..; ..and on..; ..and on..; ..and on..; Finally, the blue bridge

Connah's Quay and Shotton
Giant Redwood at Ewloe Giant Redwood at Ewloe Site of the "Battle of Ewloe" Site of the "Battle of Ewloe"

Just before Connah's Quay the Wepre Brook flows into the Dee. A short diversion up this watercourse leads to Wepre Park, an ancient woodland valley that itself leads to Ewloe castle. The valley contains a peculiar pet cemetery as well as a stand of giant redwoods. In its native Sierra Nevada the giant redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum, also known as Wellingtonia) reaches a height of 80 metres and can live for 3000 years. Giant redwoods weighing 2000 tonnes are not unknown. This deep-rooting evergreen with its thick spongy red-brown bark, has been planted in Britain since 1853.

In some versions of the long conflict between the English and the Welsh, the Welsh are portrayed as technologically inferior, however Ewloe is a native Welsh castle rather than an English one and has many of the distinctive features of Welsh Castles. These include the innovative D-shaped tower, which has the advantage of a rounded end with a good field of fire and no corners to bombard or undermine, as well as a square end which provides more living space. Welsh castles also tend to be built with the local topography in mind rather than domination of the local population, and they often make use of hilltops and crags to improve their defensiveness. Ewloe is sometime attributed to Llewelyn ap Gruffydd (1223-1282), but it was possibly built around 1150 by Owain Gwynedd, and converted to stone in about 1210 by Llywelyn the Great. Actually, it seems a rubbish place to build a castle meant as a military outpost. Even by clambering onto the very highest bit of the ruins you cannot see through the surrounding woods or out of the valley, so the English could sneak up on it with a siege-train and bombard the hell out of it. Of course, the Welsh might have just been making a statement about their technology being as good as that of the English by building a castle on their doorstep, or they might have just wanted a place to hunt and fish. The only way that anyone could run into trouble trying to besiege this place would be if they were foolish enough to bring an army up the narrow river valley. Whatever the intent, it is said that in 1157 a great battle took place between 3000 Welshmen led by Owain Gwynedd and the 30000 troops of Henry II. The Welsh had sent spies into the drinking dens of Chester to fathom the English plans and (discovering that they were going to bring an army up the narrow river valley..) set the obvious trap. During the ambush in which Henry was almost killed by Owain Gwynedd's sons, the English King's forces suffered a crushing defeat. The site of the battle is today marked by a plaque by the bridge (Pont Aber) shown in the photograph above. The bridge used to be further upriver (Pont Saeson) and was moved to the current location around 1800.

Connah's Quay (Cei Connah in Welsh) is the largest town in Flintshire and the derivation of its name has many interpretations. One view is that it came from the name of the landlord of The Old Quay House by the docks, another is that Connah was the owner of a chandlery store. A further version is that Mary Connah owned the docks and when people crossed the Dee they asked to be taken to Connah's Quay.

Shotton is a Welsh town with an Anglo-Saxon name. If you are going to visit on a Sunday by train, consult the timetable as stopping trains are non-existent in the middle of the day.

The new highway crossing of the River Dee incorporates a major cable-stayed bridge with a single A-frame tower and a main span of 200 m. Support for the bridge is provided by "barrettes" that pass through 30 m of superficial Quaternary formations into bedrock strata of the Carboniferous Bettisfield Formation. Lithology of the bedrock stratigraphic sequence varies greatly over short distances and required a flexible response for foundation design. Below the north tower leg, barrettes were socketed some 7 m into massive sandstone that provided relatively good foundation bearing conditions. However, only 50 m away, below the south tower leg, each barrette required individual design to accommodate much weaker and diverse lithologies including siltstone, mudstone, coal, seatearth and disturbed beds. Here, certain barrettes extend as much as 30 m into the mixed coal measures strata. [edit] Neston and Parkgate

The western edge of Wirral lies in the path of moist, south-westerly winds, but it is also in the lee of the North Wales mountains. This reduces the amount of annual rainfall it receives to about 75cm (30 inches) - forty or more inches being typical elsewhere. Although wetter than the east coast of England, it is still one of the driest districts on the west coast. The area also experiences fewer and less severe frosts than the Cheshire Plain because of its proximity to the coast. These effects add up to the "Wirral Micro-climate".

In 1541 the Chester corporation adopted a plan to build a new harbour some 10 miles down the Dee estuary at Lightfoot's Pool in Little Neston, perched on a sandstone outcrop jutting out to sea, and Henry VIII ordered 200 trees to be delivered to the mayor for that purpose. The name "Neston" is of Viking origin, deriving from the Old Norse Nes-tún, meaning 'farmstead at/near the promontory'. In 1548, in response to a petition from the city for aid with the work, the orders were repeated and augmented by a grant of £40 for seven years. Despite a further appeal for a royal grant in 1551, the city was forced to raise funds locally; between 1555 and 1560 voluntary rates and special assessments were imposed on the guilds, parishes, and citizens, and special payments were exacted from members of the corporation. Work was evidently well under way by 1565, when a salaried overseer was appointed. In 1566, however, the "great pier of stone" which formed the main feature of the haven was largely overthrown in a gale. To repair the damage a further special assessment was made in 1568 on the citizens and the guilds of Chester, and councilmen were ordered to oversee the work at their own cost. The New Haven, otherwise known as Neston Quay or New Quay, eventually comprised an anchorage protected by a stone pier. The project, which was probably never completed, remained a constant burden on Chester's finances throughout the later 16th century, despite appeals to the Crown for grants out of customs revenue in 1576 and 1589. Its repair was aided by the Ironmongers' company in 1571, and was the subject of further orders by the Assembly in 1576, 1587, and 1598. The city's last recorded expenditure upon it was in 1604.

The port shifted to Parkgate with silting of the River Dee. Neston's fortunes were revived in the 19th Century, when coal was discovered (the only coal in the west of Cheshire) and a colliery opened, with workings reaching under the River Dee. The Wirral Colliery company was a big employer, providing work for nearly 200 people in 1896.

Neston was the birthplace of one of Nelson's mistress, Emma Hamilton, who was born (1765) to a humble family in Neston before "working her way into polite society". Born Emy Lyon in Ness near Neston, the daughter of a blacksmith, Henry Lyon, who died when she was two months old, she was brought up by her mother, formerly Mary Kidd, at Hawarden, with no formal education. She later changed her name to Emma Hart. Progressing through working Drury Lane as a prostitute, she gained employ in a local tavern/brothel and became an early strip tease artiste. Emma next worked as a model and dancer at the "Goddess of Health" (also known as the "Temple of Health") for James Graham, a Scottish "quack" doctor. The establishment's greatest attraction was a bed through which electricity was passed, giving paying patrons mild shocks. She was still only fifteen. Passed on as mistress to various men, she was eventually (1786) packed off to Naples in return for settling debts between Charles Francis Greville and his uncle Sir William Hamilton, an antiquarian, archaeologist and vulcanologist and also British envoy to Naples. They married in 1791: he was 60; she was 26. As wife of the British Envoy, Emma first met Nelson in 1793 but their famous affair did not begin until he returned to Naples five years later, a living legend, after his victory at the Battle of the Nile in Aboukir. Not yet 40, Nelson's adventures had prematurely aged him: he had lost an arm, most of his teeth, and was afflicted by coughing spells. Emma, now in her early thirties nursed him at her aged husband's country villa and the affair started. Emma seems to have been involved in persuading Nelson to allow the court marshal of Francesco Caracciolo who was subsequently hanged. Nelson was mortally wounded during the Battle of Trafalgar (1805) and brought back to England, pickled in brandy. Emma turned to drink and died (1815) in poverty, of amoebic dysentery.

Parkgate grew from the early 17th Century, and by 1686 had become a major passenger port for Ireland. Handel stayed in Parkgate before sailing to Dublin in April 1742 for the first performance of Messiah. He had finished Messiah in the summer of 1741 and at most he could only have added minor touches to the work in Parkgate. The main channel of the River Dee passed only 50 yards from the sea front. With the opening of the New Cut, both the river channel - and passenger trade - dried up.

Ness Gardens was founded by Liverpool cotton merchant Arthur Kilpin Bulley who began to create a garden in 1898, part of which he opened to local residents. Bulley died in 1942, and in 1948 his daughter Lois presented the Gardens to the University of Liverpool with an endowment of £75,000. The only stipulation was that they be kept as a botanic gardens as a practical and fitting tribute to the memory of her father. Bulley's policy of opening a specified area of ornamental ground to the public was also to be continued. When Arthur Bulley first bought the site, it was open and windswept. However, the Gardens are now quite sheltered by Bulley's plantings of Lombardy Poplars, Holm Oaks, Scots and Black Pines. More recently planted Leyland Cypress, Italian Alder and Common Holly on the perimeter, and the growth of trees and shrubs within the Gardens, have created some very sheltered areas. The terraces in particular, located on a south-facing slope, sit in a sun trap where plants grow that would not survive in other parts of the Gardens.

Fflint
While happy with peaceful co-existence and trade, the Welsh never settled for dominance by their English neighbors. Welsh history was marked with a series of rebellions against their oppressive overlords. During the 13th century, Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (the Great) and Llywelyn ap Gruffydd (the Last), sought to regain control of Wales from the English kings, Henry III and his son, Edward I. Despite being recognized by King Henry in the late 1260's with the title of "Prince of Wales", Llywelyn the Last intentionally defied courtly protocol and refused to swear allegiance to the new king at any time during the following four years. In 1275, Edward called Llywelyn to Chester Castle to pay homage and was refused. Compromise with the Welshman was futile. For Edward, perhaps the final provocation came in the form of Llywelyn's planned marriage to Eleanor, daughter of Simon de Montfort. By 1277 the short-tempered Edward had reached the limits of his patience, and, while invading Wales, initiated what was perhaps the greatest period of castle-building in Britain.

The name Fflint is most probably derived from Old English or Old French - flint was used for any hard stone or rock, and is possibly a reference to the low sandstone hillock now below the castle, which must have been one of the few landmarks jutting into the otherwise featureless salt marshes. The castle was constructed of sandstone brought over from the quarry of Ness on the Wirral by raft. Not only was work carried out on the new castle, but an entirely new town was also erected. Flint was publicised in Lancashire, Nottinghamshire and Worcestershire and English traders encouraged to settle, by being offered burgages of up to 1000 sq. yards in the town and 40 acres outside, free of tax for their lifetime. Despite these enticements growth was small, Flint did not expand beyond the old walls until the 19th century.

Bagillt and Holywell
The name Bagillt is probably derived from an early Mercian settlement, "Bacca's lea" (the lea belonging to Bacca's people). It was at the very western edge of Mercia; Offa's Dyke starts at the coast in nearby Prestatyn and Watt's Dyke passes through Bagillt. A Cymrycized "-illt" led to the current name. Dee Bank Quay is the outfall from the Milwr Tunnel is a remarkable industrial relic near Bagiltt. Milwr Tunnel taps the same source of water as St Winefride's Well, hence its local name 'The Holy'. The dock served Bettisfield colliery and Dee Bank Lead Works. In 1897 an amalgamation of mine companies began an ambitious scheme to drive a deep drainage tunnel from sea-level at Bagillt. This tunnel was eventually hacked and blasted a distance of 10 miles to Cadole near Mold by the year 1957.

The conjoining uplands of Halkyn Mountain and Holywell Common form an elongated plateau to the east of the Clwydian Hills, separated from them by the Wheeler valley, and overlooking the north east coastal strip of Flintshire and the estuary of the River Dee beyond. The area is generally at an elevation of 250m with small local summits protruding no more than 20m above this, and comprises the most important lead and zinc ore field in Wales. Geologically it is part of the Carboniferous Limestone belt which runs south from Prestatyn in the north, to Hope Mountain and the northern side of the Bala fault in the south. Working is assumed to have started in Roman times because of the discovery of Roman remains associated with the production of lead, outside the area, at Pentre near Flint. Medieval mining is also attested from documentary sources, but 19th century mining has obliterated any traces of earlier workings. The Quaker Company was instrumental in pioneering lead mining in the county from the late 17th to late 18th centuries, and there is documentary evidence of improvements in technology that allowed deeper shafts to be driven and the location of richer veins. The richest veins were worked intensely throughout the 18th and 19th centuries in the areas now referred to as Halkyn Mountain, Holywell Common and Pen-y-Ball Top, and in 1850, 11,500 tons of lead were produced amounting to about 12% of the British total. By the 1890's many mines had been worked out, at least as deep as water levels, kept down by pumping, would allow.

The Milwr Tunnel was begun in July 1897 from a point 9 ft. below high water mark at Boot End near Bagillt (SJ 213 760) by the Holywell-Halkyn Mining and Tunnel Company. Two self acting flood doors were installed to prevent inundation by the sea at high tide and the tunnel headed south-west. The fastest rate of tunneling was 54ft a week. At the intersection of the Pant Lode, a flooded cavern, known locally as a loch or vugh, was cut into at 6 a.m. on 5th January 1917 which caused St Winefrides Well at Holywell, 2.5 miles to the north, to run dry 11 hours later. The burst of water swept loaded trucks along the tunnel until they jammed and sand blocked the tunnel, seriously hampering progress for many weeks. By 1938 the tunnel had reached the Pant-y-Mwyn Vein when low lead prices once again halted progress. However, in 1939, Pilkingtons of St. Helens became interested in the high grade limestone of the mine for glass making and work began excavating large quantities of the stone, chiefly from the area to the west of Olwyn Goch shaft. Excepting the war years, this underground quarrying continued until 1969 and resulted in a series of impressive chambers, some up to 80 ft high, which if joined end to end would extend for 2 miles. Limestone output was 70,000 to 80,000 tons per annum. The Milwr tunnel today disgorges an average flow of 23 million gallons per day, rising to 36 million in wet weather. Two thirds of this water issues from two cave systems intersected by the workings. The chief source of one of the feeders was found in the Rhosesmor branch tunnel where Powell's Lode was intersected with a flow of 5000 gallons per minute coming from a flooded cave passage and in 1931 a natural chamber (Powell's Lode Cavern) was discovered. Measuring 130 ft x 220 ft, it contains a lake to one side over 200 ft deep. Adding to this depth the height above water level of 150 ft indicated on mine plans, it once claimed to be the tallest natural underground chamber in Britain, until outdone by Titan.

The Viking coast
Steve Harding's Viking Wirral site provides a wealth of information of early settlement, trade and conflict in the area that can only be summarised here.

Towards the end of the ninth century, the Norsemen or Vikings began raiding the coast of Wirral (see Dark Age Chester). They settled along the Dee side of the peninsula, and along the sea coast, giving their villages names such as Kirby (Kirkjubyr, meaning 'village with a church'), Frankby(Frankis-byr, meaning 'Franki's/Frakki's (Frenchman's) farm') and Meols. They also introduced their own system of local government, with its parliament at Thingwall (þing vollr, meaning 'assembly field'). The "Three Fragments" (ancient Irish annals) record the population of Wirral by Norsemen led by Ingimund, expelled from Ireland around 902 and getting agreement from Æthelflæd the eldest daughter of King Alfred the Great, supposedly peacefully. The boundary of the Norse colony is believed to have passed south of Neston and Raby (Ra-byr, meaning 'boundary settlement'), and along Dibbinsdale. Further evidence of the Norse presence in Wirral can be seen from place names - such as the common '-by' (meaning "town" in Danish) in Greasby, Irby and Pensby. "Tranmere", comes from trani melr ("cranebird sandbank"). Recent Y-DNA research has also revealed the genetic trail left by Vikings in the Wirral, specifically relatively high rates of the genetic Haplogroup R1a, associated in Britain with Viking ancestry.

Mostyn
Mostyn is now the only major working port on the Dee. Ferries used to sail (until 2004) to Dublin on the Liverpool-Dublin route. Today, manufactured wings for the Airbus A380 aircraft leave Mostyn on the ship Ville De Bordeaux, after travelling down the River Dee by barge from the Airbus wing factory at Broughton.

The Lletty Hotel has perhaps the most colourful recorded history in Mostyn. The distinctive carved head over the entrance appears to have a lamb nibbling at his ear, but Thomas Pennant describes it as:

..the figure of a monster with four legs and the head of an owl, fixing its claws into the side of the human head.. The face is averted and expressing much agony. The eyelids are drawn up, the eyes the same, the mouth half opened and the teeth fixed closely together. The face is young, but has a pair of whiskers and is far from being ill cut.

It also bears the words ‘The Honest Man’ and the date 1699. Pennant also recounts the history of the Lletty:

The house was built originally by one named Smith from Worcester, partly for the purpose of distilling and partly for a warehouse. I am told that it occasionally served as a place on confinement for impressed men at the time in which the colliers had such great trade with Dublin. The strong bars in the lower windows favour that notion. In the reign of King William, this house was remarkable for the violent hands laid on a vast seizure of French wines by Revenue men, which had been smuggled into the great barn at Talacre, in the Parish of Llanasa, destined for the use of the Welsh gentry in this and neighbouring counties. The revenue officers had conveyed the prize as far the Lletty Gonest, where they intended to sleep the night. At midnight they were alarmed by the entry of multitudes of "colliers" who tied everybody in the house, neck and heels. They removed the wine into other carriages and conveyed it into places so secure that it never more could be heard of. Many of the "colliers" were observed to have rings upon their fingers and fine linen. In fact, numbers of them were the gentlemen interested in the wine and concerned in the recapture, who mixed with the colliers to direct them in their operations.. A proclamation was issued for the discovery of the offenders, but such was the fidelity that they were never detected. The poor tapster in particular, knew perfectly well who they were and large rewards were offered to him by the Custom House, but nothing could shake his attachment to his friends. He lived long after, supported by grateful contributions of the neighbouring squires.

The origin of the harbour at Mostyn is unknown but it was certainly in operation during the Civil War when guns and ammunition were smuggled in, and it has been claimed that Jasper Tudor, uncle of Henry VII, escaped from here in 1471 having been imprisoned in Mostyn Hall. It is likely that the earliest use of Mostyn as a port consisted of no more than drawing boats up to the high water mark and there are certainly records of this close to the Honest Man inn into the 18th century. By 1742 a more formal quay had developed including a pier, which it may be assumed is the same structure which survived largely intact until fairly recently, forming the north-western side of the docks. A fairly substantial port had developed by the 1840s and the Tithe survey of 1839 depicts the pier with a quay along the eastern side and an adjoining reservoir, or flushing pond. By 1872 the port had expanded considerably. The Mostyn Colliery and Darwen and Mostyn Iron Co. had developed on reclaimed land and a new dock had been built, protected by a breakwater on the north-east side and with a new flushing pond to the south-east. The original flushing pond had been partly infilled with the construction of the Chester to Holyhead railway and replaced by two smaller reservoirs. Railway sidings ran along either side of the original dock and along the new dock, as well as serving the colliery and ironworks. By the end of the 19th century waste from the dockside industries had been dumped along the edge of the estuary reclaiming new ground and had also been used to construct a 680m-long breakwater alongside the Mostyn Gutter. The 1960s saw a two-phase redevelopment of Mostyn, rebuilding the old timber quay and installing dockside railway tracks and cargo-handling equipment. The first phase was completed in 1967 and the second in 1969 with a new 363ft-long quay and transit shed complete with nine large cranes and space for five vessel.

Point of Ayr
In a meeting held at Chester in 1775 the London Company of Cheese-makers gave evidence that losses of shipping on the Dee had cost them over £40,000 and an Act of Parliament requiring the construction of a light tower at the Point of Ayr was demanded. The only objections to this came from then small port of Liverpool, who believed that it would attract trade away from them. In 1776 the Act was passed, and, by September 1777 a wooden tower had been constructed with two tar buckets sitting on a platform 35 feet up. The keeper, Edward Price, received three weeks training at a similar tower in Liverpool and was charged with keeping the tar buckets alight so that they would be visible as an aid to navigation. The tower was not a marked success as the smoke obscured the lights and the tar froze solid in winter. Ship owners complained that they were paying dues for little benefit and a lightship was tried instead. It was hardly any better and the rapidly shifting sands of the estuary meant that navigation at night was still extremely hazardous. At some point in the mid 19th Century (sources vary as to the date) a new tower replaced the wooden one, as the earlier construction had fallen into the sea some years earlier. Later still came a new lightship fitted with a gong and a white light which flashed every ten seconds. The current, long disused lighthouse is a brick tower and is beginning to tilt noticeably.

Point of Ayr colliery, where coal had been mined since 1865 was one of the last deep mines in north Wales and closed on 23 August 1996. Nothing now remains of the colliery, however the top of the one headgear was cut off to form a memorial. Yet where one fossil fuel is dropped another is taken up. Since 1996, natural gas from the Celtic gas-field has come ashore through a pipeline 33.5 km long and is processed at a nearby plant before being sold to the gas turbine power station at Connah's Quay. The current position of ships in the area can be seen here.

Red Rocks
Red Rocks Marsh is a nature reserve in part maintained by the Cheshire Wildlife Trust. It attracts a variety of migrant birds in spring and autumn as well as being home to over 50 species of flowering plants, a highly diverse flora and fauna, which includes a number of rarities - parsley piert (Aphanes arvensis), quaking grass (Briza media), Danish scurvy grass (Cochlearia danica), wild asparagus (Asparagus officinalis) and various orchid species. The rarest plant to have been discovered on this site is Mackay's Horsetail (Equisetum x trachydon), for which Red Rocks is believed to be the only English locality.

Red Rocks Marsh hosts a breeding colony of rare Natterjack Toads. The mainly nocturnal Natterjacks are recognised by a bright stripe along the centre of their back. They have shorter legs than frogs and common toads, are unable to leap very far and they run instead of hopping. Natterjacks also have the ability to darken or lighten the colour of their skin, in order to camouflage themselves in their environment. In march the males emerge from hibernation burrows and migrate to the breeding ponds where they croak in chorus at night - the toad gets its common name from the loud rasping call used to attract females. Females lay up to 4000 eggs, which hatch, from May onwards, within 5-8 days. When grown, adults disperse to the sand dunes and beach, resting under large stones, crevices or burrows during the day and feeding on small invertebrates at night (particularly moths, as well as spiders, woodlice, snails and worms). In October the toads return to burrows and hibernate until the next March. A threatened species, the Natterjack is strictly protected by British and European law which makes it an offence to kill, injure or capture them; disturb them in anyway; damage or destroy their habitat; possess them, sell or trade in them.

Red rocks themselves are an outcrop of Triassic sandstone on the tip of the Wirral which marks the eastern edge of the mouth of the Dee.

Hilbre Islands
Seal at Hilbre Seal at Hilbre

Formed by the last Ice Age, these islands show signs of having been visited by Neolithic and Bronze Age people by the artefacts that have been discovered. Geological evidence suggests that originally, there was one large island. But, over the years, tide and weather erosion have worn away at the soft red sandstone to create three islands. There was permanent habitation at least from Roman times, which continued through Norman times, when the first written records were made by a cell of Benedictine Monks associated with Chester Cathedral. The monks lived here until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538. The name "Hilbre" is derived from the name Hildeburgh. Saint Hildeburgh was a legendary figure said to have visited the island's monastery whilst on a pilgrimage. It is her name that was given to the island by the resident monks. The Monks are also reputed to have tended a light or beacon known as St Mary's light, but there is little evidence of it's function.

Since then the islands have used by fishermen and as a stop-off on the voyage from Chester to Ireland, as a result of which a public house had been established by the 18th century at the latest. The islands have a more dubious reputation for wrecking and smuggling and the innkeeper in the early 19th century was said to be unaccountably wealthy. The lifeboat station was constructed in 1849. At that time it was operated by Liverpool Dock Board. In 1894, the Royal National Lifeboat Institute took over responsibility for the station until, in 1939, it was superceeded by the Hoylake Station. A bird-watching hide has been constructed over the beginning of the old slipway for ornithologists to observe the rare breeds that congregate on the island. Trinity House, the organisation responsible for maritime navigation, also used the island. They maintained a marker buoy store here until 1876 when it was moved to Holyhead in Anglesey.

The present buildings date from the mid-19th century when a telegraph signalling station was built on the main island. The only permanent resident now is the Dee Estuary Ranger, but there are some semi-permanent Atlantic Grey Seals. One of the most visited parts of the Island is the Lady Cave. There are several different versions of the story telling how the cave got it's name. The most popular being of a young Welsh girl who had thrown herself from a boat taking her to an arranged marriage. Her drowned body was discovered by the monks on the rocks close to the cave that bears the name "Lady Cave". [edit] Visiting Hilbre

To stay on the island over high water it is necessary to reach the island TWO HOURS before high water. You must then stay on Hilbre Island until THREE HOURS after high water (i.e. five hours in total) before returning to the mainland. To visit the island between two successive high waters, it is advisable to follow the tide out starting from TWO HOURS after high water. Then, to return to the mainland it is necessary to leave the island TWO to THREE HOURS before the next high water (depending on the actual height of the tide on the day of interest, i.e. Springs or Neaps). There is an essential leaflet for Hilbre Island and you should consult the (IMPORTANT TIDAL DATA FOR HILBRE).

The last miles
The end of the journey, with the West Lancashire Moors in the far distance (Mel Bevan) The end of the journey, with the West Lancashire Moors in the far distance (Mel Bevan)

Tanskey Rocks; Little Eye; Hilbre; The End;

The Sea
Photographs of the estuary can be found here

Reference
See River Dee Reference

Upper Reaches from the source of the river through Wales; Middle Reaches from the Welsh borders to Chester;