Coleshill was a historic administrative division of

Flintshire , settlement_type = County , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = , image_flag = , image_shield = Arms of Flint ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. It was recorded in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

as the

vill Vill is a term used in English history to describe the basic rural land unit, roughly comparable to that of a parish, manor, village or tithing. Medieval developments The vill was the smallest territorial and administrative unit—a geographical ...

of "Coleselt" and as "Coleshull" by

Gerald of Wales Gerald of Wales ( la, Giraldus Cambrensis; cy, Gerallt Gymro; french: Gerald de Barri; ) was a Cambro-Norman priest and English historians in the Middle Ages, historian. As a royal clerk to the king and two archbishops, he travelled widely and w ...

.Edwards, G. J. "Henry II and the Fight at Coleshill" in ''

Welsh History Review ''The Welsh History Review'' (Welsh: Cylchgrawn Hanes Cymru) is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering the history of Wales. It is published in four parts per volume, one volume every two years. The journal was established in 1960. The editors- ...

'', v3, 3 (1967), 257 Davies, E. (1959) ''Flintshire Place-names'', UWP, p.39 The name is of

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

origin, with the first element probably being the personal name ''Col''.Davies (1959), p.40 The vill boundaries were perpetuated as those of Coleshill Fawr and Coleshill Fechan

townships A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

, which lay in Holywell parish north-west of the borough of

Flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...

; Coleshill also subsequently gave its name to a

commote A commote (Welsh ''cwmwd'', sometimes spelt in older documents as ''cymwd'', plural ''cymydau'', less frequently ''cymydoedd'')''Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru'' (University of Wales Dictionary), p. 643 was a secular division of land in Medieval Wales ...

, and later a

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...

, of Flintshire.Edwards (1967), 260 A Welsh form of the name, ''Cwnsyllt'', was sometimes used. Davies (1959) p.44 The townships of Coleshill Fawr and Coleshill Fechan were eventually merged into the Borough of Flint in 1934. Coleshill is well known as the site of the 1157 Battle of Coleshill, otherwise known (following Gerald of Wales) as Coleshill Wood or as the

Battle of Ewloe The Battle of Ewloe (also known as the Battle of Coleshill) was a battle fought in July 1157 between a large army led by Henry II of England and an army led by the Welsh prince Owain Gwynedd. The location was marked with a plaque to commemorat ...

, in which an army of Henry II clashed with the forces of

Owain Gwynedd Owain ap Gruffudd ( 23 or 28 November 1170) was King of Gwynedd, North Wales, from 1137 until his death in 1170, succeeding his father Gruffudd ap Cynan. He was called Owain the Great ( cy, Owain Fawr) and the first to be ...

. It was also supposedly the site of a battle in 1150 between Owain Gwynedd and Madog ap Maredudd of Powys, in which the latter was defeated.COLESHILL, BATTLE IN 1150, NEAR FLINT
RCAHMW, accessed 21-05-18 In more recent times the name was remembered in that of Coleshill Farm, Flint and is now used for one of the town's

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

References

{{reflist History of Flintshire