Having completed this 8 cache trail (just under 2 miles), you are entitled to our super historic badge (with thanks to HarveyJJ for producing this for us) depicting the new and old castles in the Hawarden Park (behind the red gate in centre of village).
Hawarden was originally a Saxon settlement, referred to in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Haordine (high enclosure). In the 18th/19th centuries the production of coal, iron and bricks flourished, and it is where its famous children Emma Hamilton and John Boydell, Lord Mayor of London spent their early years. Hawarden boasts 2 castles – the ruined 13th century castle used by Edward I as a base for his invasion of Wales. In 1282 it was captured by Dafydd, brother of the Welsh prince, Llewellyn app Gruffydd and in 17th century it was severely damaged in the Civil War. The new castle was William Ewart Gladstone’s home after his marriage to Catherine Glynne, heiress to the Hawarden estate.
Trueman's Hill, 300m to the west of the St Deniols church, on the periphery of the old village, is a relatively small and mutilated motte with a possible bailey on the north side. The motte is flat-topped, and the bailey though disturbed appears to retain traces of its defensive ditch on the north. A second, more substantial, motte with a bailey was constructed further to the east by Hugh, Earl of Chester in the late 11th or early 12th century. The castle was destroyed in 1265, to be superseded by a stone shell keep with an elaborate barbican in the late 13th/early14th century. It was dismantled in 1647.
Please take a pen with you.
If you would like to learn more about the history of Hawarden there is a "Hawarden Village Trails" booklet available from the Post Office near the Monument.
