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Cymraeg / English
Flint
Introduction
Landscape setting
Flint in the prehistoric, Roman and early medieval periods
The medieval castle, town and countryside
Flint between 1500 and 1700
Industrial expansion of Flint between 1700 and 1950

Your Community - Flint

Archaeology and early history of the town



Flint in its landscape, seen from the south-west. The town can be seen spreading over the coastal strip beside the Dee Estuary, with the Wirral beyond. In the foreground a pattern reflecting medieval strip fields can be seen rising onto the end of Flint Mountain. Photo: CPAT 08-c-209.

Landscape Setting

The present-day town lies on gently sloping ground no higher than 50 metres above sea level on the southern bank of the tidal estuary of the river Dee. The shores of the river are partly formed of reclaimed land protected by embankments and partly of salt marshes which have been extending as a result of the gradual rise in the land surface relative to sea level since the end of the last glaciation. The escarpment of Flint Mountain and Halkyn Mountain 2–3 kilometres to the south of the town are formed of Millstone Grit and Carboniferous Limestone with fault lines rich in lead ore. In the neighbourhood of Flint the limestone is overlain by softer shales, sandstones and coal seams, dipping to the east, which run down to the Dee but are largely hidden by a cover of glacial till as well as by river alluvium along the edge of the estuary itself.

Soils, largely formed from the glacial till, are mostly seasonally waterlogged reddish fine loamy and clayey soils which historically have been best suited to cereals and grassland. Several smallish streams running down from the limestone escarpment have cut shallow valleys through these softer rocks, loosely corresponding to geological fault lines. These streams enter the estuary by way of shallow creeks and channels, including that of the Swinchiard Brook on the western side of the town and the unnamed stream at Pentre Fwrndan to the east. The Swinchiard Brook – also sometimes formerly known as the Flint Brook – is fed by two streams draining from Halkyn Mountain, the Nant y Fflint and the Afon Conwy.

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