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

, close to the Wales–England border, 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 ...

, England, in the

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

of Broughton and Bretton. Along with the nearby village of Bretton, the total population was 5,974 at the 2011 Census, increasing to 6,535 at the 2021 Census. Broughton is home to a large aircraft factory at Hawarden Airport. This was completed in 1939 for use by

Vickers-Armstrongs Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, w ...

, who built 5,786

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

bombers. De Havilland Aircraft took over the factory in 1948 and built 2,816 planes of several designs. Today, the plant is an

Airbus Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate Airbus Defence and Space, defence and space and Airbus Helicopters, he ...

factory that manufactures wings for the A320, A330 and A350 aircraft. Airbus wings produced there are flown out in

Airbus Beluga The Airbus A300-600ST (Super Transporter), or Beluga, is a specialised wide-body airliner used to transport aircraft parts and outsize cargoes. It received the official name of ''Super Transporter'' early on, but its nickname, after the belu ...

and BelugaXL planes (while still in construction, larger A380 wings were transported by

barge A barge is typically a flat-bottomed boat, flat-bottomed vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. Original use was on inland waterways, while modern use is on both inland and ocean, marine water environments. The firs ...

along the River Dee to the nearby

Mostyn Mostyn is a village and Community (Wales), community in Flintshire, Wales, and Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, electoral ward lying on the estuary of the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, located near the town of Holywell, Flin ...

docks). The Broughton factory was featured in the 2011

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...

programme ''How to Build a Super Jumbo Wing''. Broughton is home to

Cymru Premier The Cymru Premier, known as the JD Cymru Premier for sponsorship reasons, is the national football league of Wales. It has both professional and semi-professional status clubs and is at the top of the Welsh football league system. It was found ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

team Airbus UK Broughton, who joined the highest division of the Welsh football pyramid in 2004 and remained there for 13 years, before relegation at the end of the 2016/17 season. They subsequently won promotion back to the Welsh Premier League for the 2019/20 season. The club was formed in 1946 as Vickers-Armstrongs, and several name changes took place until it adopted the current name. The club were relegated to the

Cymru North The Cymru North is a regional association football, football league in Wales, covering the northern half of the country. It initially had clubs with semi-professional status. Together with the Cymru South, it forms the second tier of the Welsh fo ...

after the 2019/20 season, but promoted back into the

for the 2022/23 season. Broughton United are a successful grassroots club within the village. They club were formed when Broughton Super Saints and Broughton Park amalgamated. Broughton has a primary school with over 500 pupils and pre-school nursery, which was created when the infant and junior schools amalgamated. The school's most recent ESTYN report rated it "Excellent" in all areas. Its students wear a distinctive purple uniform. The school incorporates the local library and a playgroup and toddler group was based there until closure. The village has a shopping park, Broughton Shopping Park, where branches of major stores such as

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom at its head offices in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen (businessman), Sir Jack Cohen in ...

can be found, in addition to Cineworld IMAX and various restaurants like Nandos, Pizza Express and Frankie and Benny's. The village centre has a small collection of shops, and the Offas Dyke Hotel on Broughton Hall Road. Broughton Hall was a large manor house situated on the housing estate where Forest Drive is now. Between 1849 and 1964, Broughton was served by Broughton & Bretton railway station. The Broughton War Memorial Institute is situated on Main Road, opposite the junction with Broughton Hall Road. The institute was built in lieu of a memorial stone to commemorate the sacrifice by residents of the village in military conflicts between 1914 and 1919, and hosts groups and events for the benefit of local people all year round. Broughton is twinned with

Auzeville-Tolosane Auzeville-Tolosane (; ) is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France. Population The inhabitants are called ''Auzevillois''. International relations It is twinned with : * Broughton, Wales * ...

(population 3,035), a commune in the suburbs of

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Notable people

* Horace Mayhew (1845–1926) of Broughton Hall, a mining engineer and colliery owner, founded the town of Broughton, Nova Scotia. * Lieutenant-Colonel Sir John Dixon Mayhew (1884 at Broughton Hall – 1954) industrialist, army officer and politician.

References

External links

Photos of Broughton and surrounding area on geograph.org.uk
{{Authority control Villages in Flintshire