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PRINTED FOR B. AND J. WHITE, BOOKSELLERS, HORACE'S HEAD, FLEET STREET,

M. DCC. XCVI.

J. Barbour sculp

HISTORY

OF

HOLYWELL PARISH.

A

T Avon-marsh Siambr, (fee p. 52.) we quit the parish of Whiteford, and enter the township of Greenfield, in the parish of Holywell, along a most excellent road.

On the left is a continuation of the marsh. Above which is a low cliff, of the fame nature as thofe which front the fhore of the parish of Whiteford.

LET me preface this little history with faying that Avon Marfb Siambr is fix miles diftant from the rill which divides Holywell parish from that of Flint; that its greatest breadth is three miles from the turnpike road in Greenfield, to the borders of the parish of Skyviog; and that the parish confifts of the townfhips of Holywell, Greenfield, Bagillt Vawr and Vechan, Whelfton, Colefbill Vawr and Vechan, Brynfordd, and Calcoed. Its boundaries

A a

TOWNSHIPS.

STOKYN.

RIVER DEE
COMPANY.

boundaries on the east are Flint, and part of Northop parishes; or the east Halkin; on the south-eaft Skyviog; on the weft Whiteford and on the north the eftuary of the river Dee.

ABOVE Avon-marsh Siambr, on the rifing ground, ftands Stokyn, a small house, which, with the eftate belonging to it, has been of late years purchased by James Potts, publican in Holywell, and the house much improved. It originally belonged to a Moftyn, a younger branch of the Moftyns of Trelacre; T. M. fignifying the name of Thomas Moftyn, cut above the arms on the monument. A daughter of this gentleman, or one of his defcendants,. and heiress of the place, transferred the eftate into the very antient. family of the Blounts, of Orlton, in the county of Hereford, and with them it remained till the purchase by the prefent poffeffor.

THE rights of the freeholders over the marsh extend a certain way to the east. These were fettled by commiffioners, in the year 1787, and a plan made, afferting the clames, as well of the freeholders, as of the River Dee Company. Thefe were founded on acts of parlement, originating in the years 1732 and the following, from that of the 11th and 12th of William III. entitled, 'An act to enable the mayor and citizens of Chefter to recover and preferve the navigation of the river Dee. It is poffible that Mr. Andrew Farrenton might be the primary cause of the improvements, by a furvey he had made, in the year 1674, of the river Dee and its eftuary.I refer my reader to the account I have given, at p. 200 of my Welf Tour, vol. i. for farther particulars.

THE other acts were paffed in the years 1740, 1742, and 1752, and the works were begun with vigor. The project was carried on by fubfcription; and the adventurers were to be.

rewarded

rewarded by the lands they were empowered to gain on both fides, from the White Sands, or the fea from Chefter; and between the county of Cheshire, on the north fide, and the county of Flint on the fouth fide; being fands, foil, and ground not bearing grafs. The tract, as appears by the chart attending the award made in 1787, and preferved among the records by the clerk of the peace for the county of Flint, terminate on our fide at the Point of Air, in the parish of Llangfaph: on the Cheshire fide at the Little Meels, at the extremity of the hundred of Wiral.

THE adventurers in the River Dee Company have gained a confiderable quantity of land from the ravages of the fea, beginning from the walls of the city of Chester, and extending above five miles, even beyond the lower ferry.

THE report of the quantity of embanked land made from the beginning, by the River Dee Company and others (according as it ás made to me by Mr. Wedge, agent to the company) is as follows: Acres inclofed by the company,

On Blacon-marfh, belonging to John Crewe, of Crewe,

3,500

efquire, about

309

On the fouth fide of the river, belonging to the freeholders of Hawarden, as Mr. Wedge believes, about

Total ftatute acres

2,200

6,000

2,000

Marshes uninclosed, August 13th, 1795, about

MR. WEDGE informs me that the grafs which is found to an- Lucerne Grass fwer best in these fandy inclosures is medicago sativa, Lucerne. It

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