Manylion a Disgrifiad y Llyfr | Book Details & Description
- Author: Mike Griffiths
- Publication October 2000
- Format: Paperback, A5, 192 pages
An entertaining portrait of the river Dee from its source in the mountains above Bala to its meeting with the sea at Prestatyn, detailing the historical and legendary richness together with the geography and industries of the area - shipbuilding and sailing, and the heavy industries of coal and lead, iron and steel. 31 black-and-white photographs.
Gwales Review
Many places of great historic interest border the banks of the river Dee, whose lower reaches form the boundary between Wales and England. Mike Griffiths's book is an admirable guide to such places: the small Welsh rural town of Bala with its woollen industry, and Methodist connections; the cattle-droving centre of Corwen with its associations with Owain Glyndŵr; Llangollen, which has Castell Dinas Bran, Valle Crucis Abbey and the International Eisteddfod; Holt with its Roman tile factory and castle.
The lower reaches of the Dee, with their rich maritime and industrial history, are probably even more fascinating than the picturesque, rural, Welsh upper reaches of the river. The city of Chester was a regional centre in Roman times; indeed, the first recorded casualty of the river Dee was a Roman officer based there. Chester was also an important port until the silting of the river made it difficult for large ships to reach; although cutting a channel in 1737 did help, it also resulted in the silting being accelerated. It had been proposed that the boundary between England and Wales should follow the river's new path, but there were objections on the grounds that Welsh sailors, buried at Sealand following the sinking of a ship in a storm, would lie in English soil; Sealand, on the wrong side of the Dee, therefore remained in Wales. Parkgate and Neston, on the Dee side of the Wirral, were also adversely affected by silting, while only Mostyn survives as a port on the Welsh side of the river.
The reminiscences of Bob Manifold and of Captain Joe Fellows capture the atmosphere of a recent but now departed era in the history of the river. Manifold, the last ferryman on the Dee, retired in 1968 and was the descendant of a long line of Manifolds who had plied this trade for 200 years. The appendices, which include extracts from the Mostyn Estate Ports Book for the period 1757-1822 and details of some of the ships, also give a taste of a more distant past.
Iolo Wyn Griffiths