BUCKLEY SOCIETY - PUBLICATIONS

Calendar for 2022

 

SORRY AS OF 17.12.2021 SOLD OUT

 

The 2021 Buckley Calendar is now on sale price £4.50 and this year is based on paintings of local scenes by the late James Bentley who was a Founder Member of the Buckley Society and worked tirlessly to promote the industrial and cultural history of this area. Most of the images used are from his collection entitled 'BUCKLEY DAYS AND WAYS'. 

The calendar is available over the counter from F & J News Centre, Mold Road and Lesters Farm Shop in Drury. A postal service is available on request price £5.50 secod class postage in the UK. and £7.50 to Europe. Payment via PayPal can be arranged on request.

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Recent Research and Excavation

Nigel W. Jones

With contributions by Peter Davey, Leigh Dodd, Richard Hankinson, Bob Silvester and Sophie Watson. The small town of Buckley, in Flintshire, has been the focus for a regional pottery industry for at least 600 years, from the medieval period to the mid-20th century. However, despite Buckley's impressive industrial past, a visit to the town today reveals little evidence to suggest the extent and importance of what was once a major industry supplying traditional earthenware. This book is based on the results of recent research and excavation which has enhanced our understanding of the Buckley potteries, identifying over 30 individual production sites from documentary and cartographic sources. It considers the factors that influenced the siting and development of the industry, how it changed through time and the reasons for its eventual demise. Few of the potteries have been the subject of archaeological excavation, and of those none have previously been published in detail. The book presents the results from excavations on the sites of four potteries, and includes a review of the evidence for others, including a gazetteer detailing the evidence for all of the potteries currently known.

Available through local bookshops or online via Archaeopress or Amazon 

(Other online sources may also be available) 

Price £25

                                                            

 

 

“ The Reverend Horace Enfield Simmons 

M C   D F C   M A (August 15 1895 -  November 28  1935) Buckley’s Forgotten Hero”. Simmons had a distinguished WWI army career, during which he was wounded three times and was awarded a Military Cross, serving at the Battle of Mametz Wood and the Somme with the Welsh Regiment. He then volunteered for the Royal Flying Corps, which became the Royal Air Force on 1st April 1918, serving in Salonika and Russia where he fought as an observer and pilot with the White Russians against the Bolsheviks. It was there he was awarded three Russian medals for his flying exploits. After the war, he entered the church, first as a curate at West Kirby and then in his home church of St. Matthew’s, Buckley. He was  a prominent figure in the Buckley British Legion, working tirelessly to help ex-servicemen adapt to civilian life. He later became Vicar of All Saints Church, Owston, Yorkshire where he died suddenly in his sleep aged only 40. His wish was that he be buried in his home town of Buckley where he had been happiest. His grave is in St. Matthew’s churchyard.

              Price £4.50 a postal service is available details of which appear on the Magazine page

 

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The Society has produced a number of publications over the years, and continues to do so, when time and funds allow.  Please scroll down to view the available publications.

                 Maritime Wales in the Middle Ages: 1039-1542  

                                  ISBN 978-1-84494-106-3

Wales is a nation surrounded by sea on three sides so the importance of its maritime history should not be understated. The maritime history of Wales in the medieval period has been long overdue in receiving attention from historians. Whilst there has been much writing on the history of Wales for this period, this is the first book to specifically look at the maritime dimensions of Wales during the Middle Ages.

                                                                  

Written by Ken Lloyd Gruffydd a founder member of the Buckley Society in Flintshire, North Wales it is a ground-breaking book to show the importance of maritime developments within the history of Wales, from the failure of the early Welsh leaders to keep control of their seas and their subsequent (though long drawn out) conquest, to the incremental incorporation of Wales into a wide network of maritime commerce that touched the lives of most of its people. The culmination of over thirty years of research, this book is based largely on Ken’s published articles, though these have been reworked and updated where necessary, and includes previously unpublished additional material on coastal traffic. 

Priced at £25 the hardback book with dust jacket is available via the Buckley Society at www.buckleysociety.org.uk  or by e mail to gruffyddargel@talktalk.net A postal service is available upon request.  

                                                           

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                              The Making of Buckley and District                                   

                                                                        

June 2015. 

A limited number of this excellent book by T.W.Pritchard have been re-printed and are available to purchase from the Buckley Society. Contact the Society with details of where the copy is to be sent to for a postage quote.  

30th June 2014  Newly reprinted in softback format

 

"The Buckley Railway Album" and Associated Industries

Following repeated requests from interested parties for this book to be reprinted a soft back version has been produced in June 2014 and is now available for sale price £9.95

 

A collection of over 200 photographs that recall the local standard gauge railway that connected the town with the docks on Deeside.

The reader is taken on a nostalgic trip back in time to experience some of the difficulties involved in working this steeply graded, antiquated industrial line. The album charts the journey from Connah's Quay Docks up line through Northop Hall to Buckley and includes views of the industries it served.

 

 

 

Available to purchase direct or from;-

Bethany Books, Shotton,   Mold Book Shop

A postal service is available including post and packing priced at

UK £3.40 (2nd class post)

Europe £8.20

Rest of World £13.80

Payment can be arranged via PayPal upon request by e mail.

 

Place Names

        

This document contains a set of maps drawn by Mr J.Foulkes and illustrates where the former brickyards, potteries and collieries were situated around the town. In addition locations of interest are indicated many of which have been known only by their local 'nick name' over many lifetimes. Priced at £2 the document is available from Buckley Library or direct from the society.

June 2013

Bistre Emmanuel Church

Nostalgic footage captured on cine film over several years between 1964 and 1972 has been digitised and the Society is selling copies price £4 each. Buckley Library and the News Centre are selling copies on our behalf. A donation from the sale of each copy will be given to Church funds.

                                                                           

 The film clips were recorded by the late Lily Whittaker and were handed to the Society by Neville Dunn. They are in no particular order but capture the events and activities at the annual fete and garden party held in the former vicarage gardens. Were you, your relatives or ancestors there? If so you may be captured on film!

The latest Community Multi Media Archive disk is now on sale at Buckley library, a postal service is available by contacting the Society via e mail.

The new Buckley Town & Heritage Trails leaflet pictured below is now available at the town library and Council Offices. 

                                                   

Several images from the Buckley Society Community Multi Media Archive (COMMA) with supporting facts have been included in the leaflet. A wealth of industrial history can be seen whilst following the trails and visiting Buckley Library and Museum. 

Released 23.09.2010 by the Buckley Jubilee Committee 'The Buckley Jubilee Centenary 1856 -1957' 

In a joint initiative with the Buckley Jubilee Committee a film of the Buckley Jubilee Centenary 1856 - 1957 Celebrations has been digitized. Now sold out (August 2012)
 
The events which were recorded on 16 mm film sponsored by the J Arthur Rank Organisation and filmed by Thomas Dempster Jones contains classic footage of Buckley streets, community preparations before the day, the procession itself and activities at various churches thereafter. Professionally filmed it is possible to identify many people involved in the celebrations, people in the crowd lining the streets, as well as Churches, buildings and locations in the back ground many of which have altered or been demolished in the last fifty years or so.
 
For a few minutes at the end of the film it switches to the Buckley Amateur Pantomime Co. Silver Jubilee production of Jack and the Beanstalk, featuring close ups of the Director Alderman Dennis Griffiths JP and members of the cast as well as several clips from the Pantomime itself.
 
The film was thought to have perished beyond repair but with professional help from the National Screen and Sound Archives in Aberystwth most of the footage has been recovered and restored to an excellent standard.
 
The Jubilee Committee are undertaking all sales of the item from two outlets i.e. F & J News Centre on Buckley Cross and Drury Post Office, the Buckley Society is therefore unable to offer a postal service on this occasion.
 
The DVD which is silent and lasts for 32 minutes has now sold out. All the proceeds have gone to support the Buckley Jubilee Charity Fund.
 

 Released 11.6.2010

            'Working Life in a Buckley Pottery'

                                    DVD

                                 

The Town of Buckley in Flintshire, North Wales is renowned for its past clay industries. A geological fault through the mountain on which the town is situated exposed clay which small cottage industries and major manufacturers exploited to produce a wide range of  highly sought after products. Small family run Potteries operated in and around the town for over six hundred years until the start of the Second World War.

Mr. John Jonathan left school in 1931 to work in one of the last such potteries to produce traditional Buckley slipware.

Now in his nineties, as far as can be established Mr. Jonathan is the last person still surviving with experience of working in the Buckley pottery industry.

Through a series of recorded interviews Mr. Jonathan describes his daily work life at Hayes’ Pottery in Etna Road, Buckley and processes that had changed little since the original business was founded nearly two centuries earlier. The DVD is illustrated with archived images of the Pottery and his fellow workers, locations and examples of pots produced in the various Buckley potteries.

Lasting some 45 minutes the DVD is recorded in PAL format for use on European television DVD players and computers.

Price £8 A postal service is available by e mailing the Society at the contact address shown below. 

PLEASE NOTE THAT CHEQUES AND POSTAL ORDERS SHOULD ALWAYS BE MADE OUT TO 'THE BUCKLEY SOCIETY' IN STERLING.

Released 17.12.2009

The Buckley Railway Album and Associated Industries

                                    DVD

                              

Based on the book released in 2007 which sold out very quickly (Scroll down to see original book) this DVD contains the original images plus three additional photographs that have come to light in recent months. Unfortunately despite extensive appeals over the past five years no film footage of the line in operation has been unearthed but the images on this DVD are supported by a commentary. The ability to see the photographs on a large TV screen or computer  brings out more detail and in the case of certain images points of interest are highlighted. The pause facility on DVD players enables further close examination. DVD  duration - 1hr.5 minutes

PAL Television system suitable for use in the UK and Europe

Price £9.95 the DVD is currently on sale at Buckley Library, the Barbers Shop, Mill Lane Buckley and Bethany Books, Shotton.

A postal service is available upon request UK price £11 including postage and packaging e mail for details

Please note that any cheques or postal order should always be in sterling made out to the Buckley Society

This 2009 publication is a DVD containing a compilation of cine footage dating from the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's of Jubilee processions, two Carnival processions and a Civic Service procession. It also contains  the 1980 Jubilee procession filmed using early video technology.

A fascinating archive of just over an hour of film footage it is for sale at Buckley Library for £5 a copy. Feedback to date suggests viewers have identified themselves as children as well as relatives as they appeared several decades ago.

As well as capturing the events featured views are also visible of old buildings, vehicles and fashions over several decades.

To order by post please contact the society via the Society mail address - details shown below.

Two other recent publications are listed below:

"The Buckley Railway Album"

A collection of over 200 photographs many of which have never previously been published. 

They recall the local standard gauge railway that connected the town with the docks on Deeside.

The reader is taken on a nostalgic trip back in time to experience some of the difficulties involved in working this steeply graded, antiquated industrial line. The album charts the journey from Connah's Quay Docks up line through Northop Hall to Buckley and includes views of the industries it served.

Hard back priced at £9.95

 

 

Whilst the thousand copies originally printed sold out within four months plans are in hand to reprint the book in softback and it will go onsale in the summer of 2014. 

 

In the light of the interest shown in the Buckley railway the Society would like to hear from anyone who may have further photographs or cine film of the railway when it was operational. 

Contact

"The Making of Buckley & District"

 

 

An excellent book by T. .W. Pritchard who has very generously donated copyright to the Buckley Society

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Society also maintains an extensive "Community Archive" - using Commanet Software - for details on the archive, and how to obtain a copy, see the "Community Archive" Page