Flint ( ) is a town in Flintshire, North
Wales
, lying on
the estuary of the River Dee. It was the
county town of the
historic county of Flintshire and
today is the third largest town in Flintshire. According to the
2001 Census the
population of the
community of
Flint was 12,804.
Geography
Flint is
located in north east Wales, adjoining the River Dee, to the north of the town of
Mold
.
Across the
River Dee, the Wirral
can be seen
from Flint and views to the south of the town include Halkyn
Mountain.
History
Flint has the oldest
town charter in
Wales, dating from 1284.
Edward I of England began constructing
Flint
Castle
in 1277. The castle was later where
Richard II was handed over to his
enemy
Henry Bolingbroke in 1399.
As a consequence, it is the setting for Act III, Scene III of the
Shakespeare play
Richard II.
The castle was the
first of Edward I's 'iron ring' of royal castles to be built in
Wales and the design served as the basis for larger castles such as
Harlech
and Rhuddlan
.
The town did not have a wall, but a protective earthen and wooden
palisaded ditch, the outline of which remained visible in the
pattern of streets until the mid-1960s, although the
medieval boundary can still be traced now. This can
be seen in
John Speed's map of
Flintshire.
In 1969 Flint hosted the
National
Eisteddfod, the town consequently has its own circle of
Gorsedd stones.
In July 2006 the
stones became centre stage in the National Eisteddfod Proclamation
Ceremony which formally announced the 2007 host town of the event
as Mold.
Governance
Flint is
within the British parliamentary constituency of Delyn
and is represented by Labour MP David Hanson.The town is part of
the Welsh Assembly constituency of Delyn
.At local government level, Flint is a
community administered by
Flintshire County Council.
Culture and demographics
Eighteen per cent of the local population identify themselves as
Welsh, a much larger proportion
(eighty-two per cent) do not [source: 2001 Census]. Many people in
Flint have some knowledge of the
Welsh
Language, although competence does vary. English is the main
spoken language to be heard across the town. There are more
Polish language speakers in Flint
since the relaxation of trade and immigration laws within Europe.
Many shops have English and Polish information displayed and there
is a Polish Shop (Polski Sklep), specialising in Polish
products.
The Flint
accent is most often mistaken for a Liverpool
accent. It is in fact a unique combination of speech
patterns shared with other Welsh speakers, old Irish settlers and those found in nearby
Cheshire
, Wirral and Merseyside.
Education
The town
has two high schools: St Richard Gwyn Catholic High
School
and Flint High School. Primary schools in
Flint include the Gwynedd School, Cornist Park School, Ysgol Croes
Atti (Welsh Medium) and St Mary's Catholic Primary School.
Community
Flint has
its own low-powered television relay transmitter
, designed to provide improved coverage of Welsh
channels in an area that would otherwise receive only English
television signals.
Perhaps one of the town's most striking images, apart from the
castle, is the three
tower blocks of
high-rise flats situated near the town centre. The first two blocks
were built in the 1960s and named Bolingbroke Heights and Richard
Heights, with a third, Castle Heights, added shortly after.
Numerous
pubs in the town have been renovated
over the past decade in order for the town to appeal to the wider
community. Flint's association with pubs and drinking goes back a
long way; a survey issued in 1900, from the office in Mold, of the
Chief Police Constable for Flintshire, listed a total of thirty
five licensed public houses and off licensed premises retailing
beers,
wines and
spirits.
Flint has a local football team
Flint Town United F.C.. They play in
the
Cymru Alliance.
Brian
Fell's sculpture Footplate can be seen at Flint
railway station
. Initially it was thought to be an imitation
of the famous
Monty Python foot drawn
by
Terry Gilliam.
Notable people
Former
Liverpool FC striker and Wales
football captain
Ian
Rush attended St. Richard Gwyn Catholic High school in Flint,
some of his family live in the area. Other famous footballers who
are from Flint include
Ron Hewitt who
starred in Wales' only
Football World
Cup appearance and his nephew
Andy
Holden.
Other famous people connected with the town
include the chemist John Thomas best known for his research into
plant dyes and Thomas Totty, an Admiral who served with Lord Nelson and inherited Cornist Hall
, Flint.The actor
Ian Puleston-Davies also comes from
Flint.
Tom Cruise's paternal great-great grandfather,
Dylan Henry Mapother, emigrated to Louisville, Kentucky
from Flint in 1850.
References
External links
Wikis
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