Bretton is a village in

Flintshire Flintshire () is a county in the north-east of Wales. It borders the Irish Sea to the north, the Dee Estuary to the north-east, the English county of Cheshire to the east, Wrexham County Borough to the south, and Denbighshire to the west. ...

, Wales. It is located to the west of the city of

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

, near the border with

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

, England. Along with the nearby village of Broughton, the population was 5,791 at the 2001 Census.

History

The placename Bretton is probably derived from the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

(ON) ''Bretar'' 'relating to the

Britons (historical) The Britons (Linguistic reconstruction, *''Pritanī'', , ), also known as Celtic Britons or Ancient Britons, were the Celts, Celtic people who inhabited Great Britain from at least the British Iron Age until the High Middle Ages, at which point ...

, the Welsh (people)' and the Old English language (OE) ''tūn'' 'farm or estate' The original

settlers A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a Human settlement, settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among ...

in Bretton were

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

welshmen, possibly second or third generation

expatriates An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. The term often refers to a professional, skilled worker, or student from an affluent country. However, it may also refer to retirees, artists and ...

, distinctive in origin, culture, dress, accent or speech, who may well have called themselves, or been described by the English (and perhaps the Welsh), as ON ''Bretar'' rather than OE ''Walas'' or OE ''Cumbras''. Bretton Canal (also known as Sir John Glynne's Canal) was the western end of the waterway that crossed the

Saltney Saltney is a town straddling the counties of Flintshire and Cheshire on the England–Wales border. The local government Community (Wales), community of Saltney lies entirely in Wales, while the English areas are Unparished area, unparished. The ...

Marsh on a route for two miles, and then turned to meet the new channel of the Dee a short distance away. It was used to transport coal from the mines owned by the Glynne family. The canal was abandoned in 1775 after only 10 years use, it eventually disappeared with the Saltney Marsh Inclosure Act 1778 ( 18 Geo. 3. c. ''90'' ). The village has had two public houses, The Grosvenor Arms, located adjacent to the bakery and nicknamed "The Dogs" and The Glynne Arms located near the station. The Grosvenor Arms closed in the early part of the 20th century and The Glynne Arms closed in 2007 and re-opened in 2010 as The New Glynne Arms. Bretton also has a water pump on a roadside green. The disappearance of the pump during remodelling of the road junction was a source of concern to local residents in the 1970s, until it was traced to a council storage yard and reinstated. Bretton Wood (south east of the village) is marked on

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

maps of the area, in past times it was referred to as Bretton Forest, it stretches a considerable distance into Lower Kinnerton and Dodleston where it is known as Black Wood. The wood was cut into two parts when the Chester Southerly By-pass ( A55 road) was constructed in 1976. Bretton Lodge was a

gatehouse A gatehouse is a type of fortified gateway, an entry control point building, enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a town, religious house, castle, manor house, or other fortification building of importance. Gatehouses are typically the most ...

, at the entrance of Bretton Wood for the carriage road that led, via Balderton, Cheshire to Eaton Hall, Cheshire, evidence suggests that a lodge building was present in the 17th century.Page 23 The Place-names of East Flintshire. Hywel Wyn Owen. University of Wales Press. Cardiff. 1994 It was demolished in the early 1980s to make way for the extension to the bridge over the A55 road. On 26 September 1976, human error brought ruin to the houses adjacent to the south side of the main

road (now the A5104 road). Workmen in

left a drainage ditch with a temporary cofferdam in place over the weekend that caused extensive flooding when the water from a deluge of rain backed up and flooded all the houses and surrounding land. In 2010 a residents committee was formed, Bretton Residents Action Group (BRAG), to ensure that future development surrounding the village did not adversely affect village life and to develop community activities. A link to the village website is at the foot of the webpage.

Methodist Chapel

The current

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

chapel was built in 1859, although evidence suggests that

worship was present in the village before this. In 1830 a petition was submitted to the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

stating that the Members of the Methodist Congregation assembled at Bretton, in the County of Flint, whose Names are thereunto subscribed; praying their Lordships "to adopt Measures for the Extinction of Slavery, and the Extension of all the Blessings of Freedom to the utmost Limits of the British Empire; and for a Reform of Parliament:" The chapel was extended, in 1920, by the addition of a front porch to commemorate the villagers who gave their lives in World War I. Two stone inscriptions, either side of the entrance, are dedicated to the memory of:- Not commemorated on the remembrance porch, but on the list inside the chapel entrance:-

Farming

The land surrounding the village has been used for farming for several hundred years. The land that lies to the south of the village was part of the Eaton Estate belonging to the Grosvenor family, the land to the north of the village was part of the Gladstone Estate, formerly belonging to the Glynne family. Several farming properties and tied cottages carry emblems or design features of these estates. Many diverse farming practices have been seen during the 20th and 21st century these include traditional arable and small herd

dairy farming Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for the long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for the eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a h ...

, intensive pig farming and turf farming. Catherine Farm (and Mary Farm in nearby Broughton, Flintshire) disappeared from the landscape when the Vickers Armstrong aircraft factory was built in 1939. ;Farms- ;Bretton Hall :- The boundary between Bretton in Wales and Dodleston in England cuts through the corner of this farmland.Page 22. The Place-names of East Flintshire. Hywel Wyn Owen. University of Wales Press. Cardiff. 1994 ;Bretton Hall Farm :- former Grosvenor Estate farm with distinctive John Douglas style design features, now converted into offices available for rental. ;Hopes Place :-empty property, not farmed ;Hopes Place Farm :- former Grosvenor Estate farm with distinctive John Douglas (architect) style design features, now family owned dairy farm. Suggestion is made that the Hope family descended from Hugh Hope of Hawarden and that Place is a corruption of the Welsh word ''plas'' meaning 'large house or mansion'. In several instances in the Parish Registers it is given as if the name of a township. ;Holly Bush Farm :- former Grosvenor Estate farm, demolished in the late 1960s and rebuilt, former pig farm now free range poultry. ;Well House Farm :- private residence, farm outbuildings converted into offices. ;Brook Farm :- owned by Flintshire County Council and renamed providing training and hands on work experience for adults with learning difficulties who interested in

horticulture Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...

. ;Digby Farm :- now a Caravan Club touring caravan site. ;Elm Farm :- family owned dairy farm, with outbuildings designed by John Douglas (architect). ;Bretton Farm :- converted, along with the outbuildings, into private residences. ;Bretton House Farm :- private residence, former veterinary surgery, farm outbuildings demolished in 1977 for a new house adjacent. ;Bretton Lodge Farm :- family owned arable farm. ;Springfield Farm :- former poultry farm, now private residence.

Industry and commerce

After World War II a large British Road Services (BRS) depot and vehicle workshop, Premier Garage, was built on the main road, later becoming a commercial vehicle garage, undergoing several name changes; H&J Quick, Quicks of Chester, Bramhall Quick and now Evans Halshaw. A provender mill was built at the end of Broughton Mills Road, Bretton to provide animal feed for the area. After the mill closed it was taken over, for a period, by the No-Nail Box Company for manufacture and distribution of their products. Several haulage and storage firms used the premises in the 1980s before the whole building was refurbished and became a curtain factory.

Transport

The Mold Railway Company in 1847 were authorised to build a railway from Mold, Flintshire to

. As well as transporting minerals mined in the Mold area, the railway also carried passengers. Opened in August 1849, Broughton & Bretton railway station provided a transport link for local residents. When opened the station was called Broughton but it was renamed by the LNWR in April 1861 to Broughton Hall. It received another name change in July 1908 to Broughton and Bretton. The station closed to regular passenger services on 28 April 1962 but it remained in use for a workmen's train service from Chester to serve the nearby aircraft factory until 2 September 1963. After lying derelict since the closure of the railway, the station became a private dwelling before becoming the Station House Veterinary Centre, Bretton. Bretton used to be connected via road link to Broughton via Bretton Bridge. This was an old railway bridge that existed until the creation of the Broughton Park shopping complex. The bridge is now a public footpath with flagpoles at its summit. It is also of interest to note that in the late 1980s, residents in the Boulevard, Broughton have found remains of railway sleepers in rear gardens, from when the railway connected the villages of Broughton and Kinnerton. From the top of Bretton Bridge, the route of the former railway can be discerned. Part of the former trackbed is now a surface water drain within the country park in Broughton.

References

External links

Bretton Village WebsitePhotos of Bretton and surrounding area on geograph.org.uk
{{authority control Villages in Flintshire