Connah’s Quay — A Mini History
Connah’s Quay can perhaps be described as a mini Gibraltar, a town that is on the coast of the River Dee, sitting as a gateway to Chester just on the border of England and Wales. Its history dates back to a time when the docks were hugely important to the people of Flintshire. One major difference to Gibraltar is the weather though, Connah’s Quay isn’t blessed with much sunshine, or so it seems.
In this feature I want to look at a quick potted history of the town, a town that was once called Wepre. Wepre is in fact mentioned in the Doomsday Book, the population was a far cry from the 17,000 or so residents that now live in Connah’s Quay, in fact back then the population was a measly 6 people. In those early days it was pretty much just the docks, the rest of the area was made up of fields and Wepre woods.
The name Connah’s Quay is said to have its roots way back in the late 1700’s but there is some argument as to where it came from. Some say that James Connah who lived in the area from 1732 to 1787 was the reason the name changed from Wepre to Connah’s Quay, apparently he lived at the what us now known as the Old Quay House, still standing on Dock Road to this day, and was a member of the industrial minded Connah family. Others have said that the name comes from a gentleman who owned a Chandlery store. Chandlery stores sell water faring goods, probably a very sensible business to run given the importance of the docks. There are historians who put the renaming of Wepre down to Mary Connah, the owner of the docks. This seems more feasible as there were regular river crossings from the Wirral, places such as Parkgate, its said that the Wirral public would ask to be taken to Connah’s Quay, naming it after the lady who’s Quay it actually was.
Connah’s Quay/Wepre started to grow because of its key position on the River Dee, over the next 100 years Connah’s Quay grew from it’s tiny population base of 7 to 1422 by the year 1844, it had 314 houses, so what was essentially just a dock and fields a century prior, began to attract industry and therefore property builders to house workers. The docks became a shipyard, and Connah’s Quay became a village which was a chapelry of the Northop, Flint. Being a chapelry means that Connah’s Quay was served by an Anglican Chapel, ultimately under St Asaph.
Connah’s Quay became a famous shipyard in the 19th Century, so much so that Coppack Brothers & Co. ordered a schooner, known as the ‘Kathleen & May’. This ship was built close to the Old Quay House, which as I mentioned earlier is still standing today, along with the ship, the ‘Kathleen & May’ which is the only 3 masted schooner that can still sail today. The ship was renamed ‘Lizzie May’ by Coppack Brothers & Co. Whilst they owned the ship it sailed a staggering 40,000 miles around the British coast. This famous ship was the 51st launched in Connah’s Quay by prolific boat builders Ferguson & Baird. At the end of April in 1900 loads of spectators flocked to watch the newly named Lizzie May launch. Miss Coppack launched the ship in the traditional way, smashing a bottle of wine hanging from a light blue ribbon. Within days the Lizzie May was loaded with bricks destined for Rochester in Kent for it’s first workload. During 1908 the ship was bought by a ship owner from Ireland who renamed it again, but by coincidence his daughter, whom he named it after was called May. The ship is unique because it survived two world wars and despite being retired from active duty in 1961 it can still sail today. Before I move on from ships, the famous Royal Charter was built in Deeside, it sailed from the UK to Australia but on it’s way back got caught in a storm just off the isle of Anglesey and sadly 400 people lost their lives (more can be found here https://bit.ly/38n8jmX). I’ve spent enough time rambling on about boats, but it’s important as Connah’s Quay has a maritime history.
History shows us that a businessman by the name of Charles Davison owned the docks around the late 1800’s. As you will read later, the docks were sold to the council, but prior to that Charles kept Connah’s Quay going as an important port. Charles bought the railway line that linked Connah’s Quay docks to Buckley and that enabled goods to flow both ways to and from Mold, Wrexham and the surrounding area. The fact that Connah’s Quay was such an important shipping area could be lost on the younger generation, as very little of the ‘old’ Connah’s Quay survives. The Custom House pub still stands, Charles Davison’s mansion is now Fairfield Hall, currently a masonic hall, but shhhhh don’t tell anyone I told you that. There are a few terraced houses, called Railway Terrace that still exist, they were built for the railway workers at that time. Charles also owned an orchard, that would have been situated around the Red Hall area. Don’t be fooled into thinking this is the end of the story for the docks, local fisherman have set up a society to try and bring back the docks mainly for leisure purposes. More information on them, plus their activities can be found here www.quayrivertours.com or head on down to the Kathleen & May Heritage Centre on Dock Road.
From 1851 onwards we are able to gather statistics and make some assumptions based on the census carried out every ten years. It tells us a lot about who lived here over the years based on sex, age and more. What is clear about Connah’s Quay is that the population has grown steadily as the town grew from being just those who lived and worked at the docks, to becoming one of Flintshire’s biggest towns. More and more houses were built and during the 1970’s and 1980’s Connah’s Quay seemed to boom. Population rose and housing grew at expediential levels. This is still happening today as we see the gap between Connah’s Quay and Northop shrinking yearly. It seems that it won’t be long before there is no farm land left between them both. The population was no longer ‘just a handful’ in the 18th century, to the 17,000…ish people living here today. Not only has the landscape changed, but the nationality of the population has also dramatically changed, even from the 2011 census the change is dramatic. In 2011 the majority of residents in Connah’s Quay were predominantly British, now there are many eastern Europeans who have come here in search of a better life. The rise in industry has enabled Connah’s Quay to grow. The growth can be somewhat attributed to Deeside Industrial Estate, which started its rise back in the 1960’s when the old docklands were sold to the council who decided to turn it into a place for businesses to thrive. Whether it was fortune or whether it was a clever bit of business, the industrial estate enabled Connah’s Quay to climb out of the ruins of pending disaster. The River Dee was silting up, therefore the ship building industry was taking a nose dive, the old railway line was shut, eventually turning into a cycle path. Up the road in Shotton, the famous steel works was closing, leaving many residents of Connah’s Quay on the road to poverty. They were dark times, and many members of the current population will testify how bad it truly was. The Industrial Estate grew, much faster and bigger than the council perhaps expected, which was of course great news for the local. Huge companies based themselves there, the likes of the head office of frozen food giants, Iceland plus Toyota and more. This growth created jobs and all of a sudden Connah’s Quay was of huge importance again.
Moving forward in time Connah’s Quay had a visit from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, as she officially opened the new bridge in 1998, a bridge designed to ease the traffic chaos on the coast road through Queensferry, Shotton and Connah’s Quay. It would link the border of England and Wales with Flint and the rest of the coast. Workers from the industrial estate now had an easier and quicker route home.
That’s a short introduction to the history of Connah’s Quay, there is so much more to learn if you look for it. I could’ve spent months writing about the town I live in, but either fortunately or unfortunately that's where I'll leave my delve into the history of Connah’s Quay.
