Connah's Quay (), known locally as "The Quay" and formerly known as Wepre, is a town and
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 ...
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. ...
, on the
River Dee and next to the
border with England.
With a population of 16,771, it is the largest town in Flintshire. The town is also part of the wider
Deeside
Deeside () is the name given to a predominantly industrial conurbation of towns and villages in Flintshire and Cheshire on the England–Wales border, Wales–England border lying near the canalised stretch of the River Dee, Wales, River Dee t ...
conurbation and is contiguous with
Shotton,
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. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...
and
Buckley.
It is located west 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 ...
and south of
Liverpool
Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
also close to the
Wirral. Just south of the River Dee and town is the
Deeside Industrial Park. Additionally,
Tata has a steelworks on the town's border on the north bank of the River Dee.
Wepre Woods, an
ancient woodland in the town, is controlled by
Flintshire County Council
Flintshire County Council is the unitary local authority for the county of Flintshire, one of the principal areas of Wales. It is based at Tŷ Dewi Sant, Ewloe since 2025. It was previously based at County Hall in Mold.
Elections take place ...
's Ranger Service and includes
Ewloe Castle
Ewloe Castle () is a native Welsh castle built by the Kingdom of Gwynedd near the village of Ewloe in Flintshire, Wales. The castle, which was one of the last fortifications to be built by the native Prince of Wales, Princes of Wales, was aband ...
which dates from the 13th century.
Etymology
Connah's Quay is a relatively recent name, with the settlement (and nearby wood) first 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...
of 1086 under the name ''Wepre''. The use of this name would continue into the modern era, as tithe maps record the conurbation of homes and farms as "the Wepre township" (with Golftyn Township to the north).
Thomas Morgan stated that this name was a corruption of the ancient ''Wybre'' (Gwybre or Gwybra in
Modern Welsh). This name is derived from the
Welsh place-name elements "Gwy" (a common element in Welsh hydronymy, usually denoting a river) and "Bre" (hill). This older name is still found in various usage across Connah's Quay, most notably in
Wepre Park.
The town's English name dates from the late eighteenth century, when a number of new quays were built for the New Cut channel to the sea (construction in 1737). These quays included a pier named ''New Quay'' in 1773 and one in the surrounding area named ''Connas Quay'' in 1791. Only the latter name has survived today as Connah's Quay, named after James Connah (1732–87) who lived at the Quay House and was a member of the prominent local industrialist Connah family. This name is also the source of the town's official name in Welsh, , a partial
calque
In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language ...
of the English name.
Other theories given for the origin of the name have included:
* From a former landlord of the "Old Quay House", a public house which is still on the docks in what is now the west side of the town.
* That Connah was a man who owned a
chandlery
A chandlery ( or ) was originally the office in a wealthy medieval household responsible for wax and candles, as well as the room in which the candles were kept. It could be headed by a chandler. The office was subordinated to the kitchen, and on ...
store on the docks.
* From a lady called Mary Connah who used to own the dock, and so when people crossed the River Dee from places opposite, such as
Parkgate or
Neston
Neston is a market town and civil parish in Cheshire, England. It is within the part of the Wirral Peninsula that belongs to the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester. The built up area (as defined by the Office for National Statistic ...
, they would ask, "Could you take me to Connah's Quay".
History
The earliest recorded settlements date from the time of 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...
, listed as 'Wepre', part of the
Hundred of Ati's Cross,
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 ...
. The total population was 6 households. Wepre Woods are also recorded, measuring ½ a league.
Until the 18th century, the area where Connah's Quay and its neighbours Shotton, Aston and Queensferry now stand was nothing more than fields and a handful of inhabitants. It was not until the silting of the River Dee ended
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 ...
's port activities that people and commerce began to flood in. The docks at Connah's Quay became a vital source of trade and finance for the greater Flintshire area, and
with the advent of the railways during the 19th century a number of railway companies began to appear.
The first railway to appear in the area was the
Chester and Holyhead Railway running across the coast of
North Wales
North Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdon ...
linking the rest of the
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...
with
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
via the port at
Holyhead
Holyhead (; , "Cybi's fort") is a historic port town, and is the list of Anglesey towns by population, largest town and a Community (Wales), community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales. Holyhead is on Holy Island, Anglesey, Holy Island ...
. The purpose of this railway was chiefly for post to and from Ireland. During the 19th century, the railway's importance grew as Holyhead became the destination of choice for Ireland rather than
Liverpool
Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
. Most of the line was quadruple tracked and this included the stretch through Connah's Quay.
With the success of the Irish Mail trains, the dock was connected by the
Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay Railway to the nearby town of
Buckley, chiefly to transport bricks, clay and pottery products. A railyard was established at Connah's Quay docks with small feeder lines to the lines at Shotton, connecting to the
North Wales and Liverpool Railway and the
Chester and Connah's Quay Railway. A major steel works,
John Summers & Sons, was founded in 1896 and is now owned by
Tata Steel
Tata Steel Limited is an Indian multinational steel-making company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, with its primary operations based in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. It is a subsidiary of the Tata Group.
Formerly known as Tata Iron and Steel ...
. Although now known as Shotton Steel, the plant lies mainly in Connah's Quay.
The town grew from this small port, which included a Ferguson shipyard which built the historic ship
Kathleen & May, to becoming a major
railway town
A railway town, or railroad town, is a settlement that originated, or was expanded, as a result of a railway line being constructed there.
North America
During the construction of the First transcontinental railroad in the 1860s, temporary, ...
.
By the late 1950s, the port had virtually ceased trading and the railway was in terminal decline. The two docks had by then long silted up, imprisoning the rotting hulk of an old wooden ship, the ''Bollam''. This old vessel was believed to have taken part in rescuing the defeated
British Expeditionary Force from
Dunkirk
Dunkirk ( ; ; ; Picard language, Picard: ''Dunkèke''; ; or ) is a major port city in the Departments of France, department of Nord (French department), Nord in northern France. It lies from the Belgium, Belgian border. It has the third-larg ...
.
The town's passenger railway station (
Connah's Quay railway station) on the
North Wales Coast Line and northern terminus of the WMCQR line was open between 1870 and 1966. While the line remains open, there no trace of the former station. The street Leighton Court was built in 1998 on the site of the former station forecourt as well as the former WMCQR line, which had been lifted many years before. In fact, the growth of housing in the town and greater area since the line to Buckley was removed means that there is almost no trace of the former line. Its former path across the cricket pitch, up Pinewood Avenue and down past the substation has been completely built over.
Another activity that ceased with the closure of the port was fishing. Fishermen would row out across the river in an arc, paying out a long net over the stern of the boat as they went: see
seine fishing
Seine fishing (or seine-haul fishing; ) is a method of fishing that employs a surrounding net, called a seine, that hangs vertically in the water with its bottom edge held down by weights and its top edge buoyed by floats. Seine nets can be dep ...
. They then returned to shore and hauled in the net. Mostly they caught
fluke, which would then be sold from barrows pushed around the housing estates.
Facilitated with the lifting of the Buckley line, by the 1970s the town had absorbed the nearby hamlets of Golftyn, Kelsterton and Wepre and many housing projects were developed.
As with many small towns, the decline of local commerce has resulted in Connah's Quay overdeveloping its houses at the expense of shops and businesses. Many of these houses were indeed refittings of former shops. As a result, the town's population has swollen from a few hundred inhabitants to close to twenty thousand over a period of 50 years.
Sights

A number of historic structures are located in Connah's Quay, such as
St Mark's Church and
St David's Church.
Top-y-Fron Hall is a Grade II* listed structure from the Georgian era.
Connah's Quay Power Station is an example of industrial architecture from the 1990s.
Flintshire Bridge was opened in 1998 by Queen
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...
.
Economy
Business in the town is mainly limited to local newsagents and a few independent traders located along High Street.
While the town itself does not have many businesses,
energy production is a major industry in the area and the town is home to
Connah's Quay Power Station, a 1498MW gas fired station on the south side of the Dee, which utilises gas not only from the Dee estuary but also the
Douglas Complex located further afield at
Talacre.
Many of the town's residents are employed at the nearby Deeside Industrial Estate, located on the north side of the Dee, and is the location of
a second power station,
Tata steelworks, Toyota, Wales Rally GB and the central headquarters of the
Iceland (supermarket)
Iceland Foods Limited, Trade name, trading under both the Iceland and The Food Warehouse by Iceland names, is a British supermarket chain headquartered in Deeside, Wales. Initially specialising in frozen goods, Iceland sells a range of groce ...
chain of supermarkets.
Education

Schools in Connah's Quay include
Connah's Quay High School, Bryn Deva Primary, Wepre Primary, Brookfield Primary and Golftyn Primary.
Further education is provided by
Coleg Cambria, formerly Kelsterton College, and by the 6th Form at Connah's Quay High School, which shares resources and students with other schools in Deeside.
Community
Since the 1990s, several large housing developments have been built in Connah's Quay and the town had a
booming property market, with house prices steadily increasing the town appeared to have finally shaken the effects of the mass redundancies from major employers in the 1970s and 1980s. However, surveys in the 2010s show that unemployment in the Connah's Quay area was rising by a further four percent every year. Crime statistics in 2013 ranked Connah's Quay (central) as the 5th highest rate in Flintshire with neighbouring Shotton (east) placed worst.
Governance
There are two tiers of local government covering Connah's Quay, at
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 ...
(town) and
county
A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...
level: Connah's Quay Town Council and
Flintshire County Council
Flintshire County Council is the unitary local authority for the county of Flintshire, one of the principal areas of Wales. It is based at Tŷ Dewi Sant, Ewloe since 2025. It was previously based at County Hall in Mold.
Elections take place ...
. The town council is based at the Quay Building on Fron Road.
The town council consists of 20 councillors who are elected from four
wards; 3 from Connah's Quay Wepre, 5 from Connah's Quay Central and 6 each from Connah's Quay Golftyn and Connah's Quay South. The same wards are used as
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 t ...
s for
Flintshire County Council
Flintshire County Council is the unitary local authority for the county of Flintshire, one of the principal areas of Wales. It is based at Tŷ Dewi Sant, Ewloe since 2025. It was previously based at County Hall in Mold.
Elections take place ...
. Connah's Quay Wepre elects one councillor, and the three other electoral wards each elect two.
Connah's Quay is part of the
Alyn and Deeside constituency and
North Wales
North Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdon ...
region for the
Senedd
The Senedd ( ; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, Its role is to scrutinise the Welsh Government and legislate on devolve ...
, and of the
Alyn and Deeside constituency for
parliament
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
.
Administrative history
The area which is now Connah's Quay was historically part of the
townships of Golftyn and Wepre, which both formed part of the
ancient parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
of
Northop. When elected parish and district councils were created in 1894 Northop was given a parish council and included in the
Holywell Rural District. Efforts to give Connah's Quay its own council led to it being made a separate
urban district in 1896.
Connah's Quay Urban District Council built itself a headquarters at 286 High Street in 1929, which was replaced in the 1960s by the Civic Centre on Wepre Drive. The urban district was abolished in 1974, with its area becoming a community instead. District-level functions passed to
Alyn and Deeside District Council, which was in turn replaced by Flintshire County Council in 1996.
Local Government (Wales) Act 1994
The Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 (c. 19) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which amended the Local Government Act 1972 to create the current local government structure in Wales of 22 unitary authority areas, referred to as ...
Sport
Football
The town is home to Deeside College which has on site the North Wales
indoor athletics
Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and ...
centre and athletics track which is used by
Connah's Quay Nomads F.C. After having continuously played in the ''League of Wales'' during the 1990s, the club were relegated to the
Cymru Alliance
The Cymru Alliance League (known for sponsorship reasons as Huws Gray Alliance) was a association football, football league in North Wales, north and Mid Wales, central Wales which formed the second level of the Welsh football league system. Fro ...
in 2009 due to the restructuring of the
Welsh Premier League. Later the team won the Cymru Alliance twice in succession and were finally readmitted to the WPL. The Nomads became champions of Wales in the 2019–20 season, winning the league for the first time in the clubs history.
Cricket
The town is also home to a cricket club, who play their home games at Central Park. They have 7 teams in the North Wales League, the 1st XI won the
North Wales Premier Cricket League in 2011.
Miscellaneous
Other facilities include Connah's Quay Sport Centre which has 4 grass football pitches, a sports hall, 2 gymnasiums, an outdoor floodlit artificial pitch which can host 3 x 6 a side football pitches or a full size football or hockey pitch. There is also an indoor sports hall which hosts 5 a side, basketball,
badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...
and many other activities. A swimming pool is also located in the town, just off Wepre Drive.
Notable people
*
Carl Sargeant (1968–2017), politician, Minister for Housing and Regeneration and Assembly Member for
Alyn and Deeside since 2003, lived in the town until his death.
*
Luke Thomas (born 1993), a celebrity chef, author and entrepreneur
*
Scott van-der-sluis (born 2001)
Love Island Contestant in 2023 UK Tenth Series, US Fifth Series and Love Island Games
Sport
*
Teddy Peers
Edward John Peers (31 December 1886 – 20 September 1935) was a Wales international football goalkeeper. He won 12 caps for Wales and spent 1911 to 1921 at Wolverhampton Wanderers and then from January 1922 to May 1923 at Port Vale.
Caree ...
(1886–1935) goalkeeper with 186 club caps for
Wolves
The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though gr ...
and 12 for
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 ...
*
T. G. Jones (1917–2004) pre-war footballer with over 180 club caps, raised in Connah's Quay.
*
Ted Hankey (born 1968) former BDO darts world champion, lived in the town during the 1990s.
*
Darren Tinson (born 1969) footballer with over 650 club caps, now manager.
*
Gareth Owen (born 1971) footballer with over 430 club caps.
*
Tom Doran (born 1987) boxer, held the WBC International middleweight title in 2016
*
Drew Parker (born 1997)
wrestler for
Big Japan Pro Wrestling
Cultural references
The town is mentioned in the lyrics of the
Catatonia
Catatonia is a complex syndrome most commonly seen in people with underlying mood disorders, such as major depressive disorder, or psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia. People with catatonia exhibit abnormal movement and behaviors, wh ...
song "Imaginary Friend" which is found on the album ''
Paper Scissors Stone''.
References
External links
Connah's Quay Town CouncilBBC Wales - Connah's Quay, Shotton & Queensferry website
{{authority control
Towns of the Welsh Marches
Towns in Flintshire