Deeside

Shotton's history dates back around 1000 years to Saxon times.[7][8] Various settlements within the Deeside area are recorded in the Domesday book (1086) which list them within the Cheshire Hundred of Ati's Cross. They are Aston, Broughton, Clayton, Hawarden, Golftyn and Wepre. The largest of these was Hawarden[9] with 14 households.

As a border region, the Deeside area was subject to frequent conflict between the Welsh and the English in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In the Battle of Ewloe in 1157, Owain Gwynedd inflicted a notable defeat on the forces of Henry II. Ewloe Castle was built by Llywelyn the Great in the early thirteenth century to secure the area. Llywelyn's son and successor, Dafydd ap Llywelyn, was borne in nearby Coleshill in 1212.

Until industrialisation in the nineteenth century, Shotton remained a cluster of hamlets: a settlement comprising Shotton, Nine Houses and Shotton Hall, which itself dates back to 1637.[4][10][11] Coal mining developed in the eighteenth century, then in 1889 the opening of the Hawarden Railway Bridge over the River Dee improved access to the reclaimed Dee Marshes.[4] Following this, in 1895, the Summers family purchased 40 acres (160,000 m²) of Dee marshland,[12] on which they established Shotton Steelworks.[4][12]

In September 1896, Shotton Steelworks began producing sheet steel. The development of this steelworks on the banks of the River Dee changed an area that was once mainly marshland, with Shotton – just across the Dee – previously little more than a hamlet. Shotton Steelworks led to the development of whole communities to house the influx of workers, estimated up to 13,000 at the height of the industry,[12] with Shotton and Connah's Quay Jetty hubs of activity serving the steelworks.[13] There were also brickworks and other industries in and around Shotton, and Connah's Quay developed as a town on the banks of the Dee Estuary, becoming known for its shipbuilding industry.[6]

The city of Chester, Wrexham and Deeside is a proposed city region spanning the large urban areas of Wrexham and Chester and the community of Deeside. This would be a unique city in the UK as its boundaries would cross the border on England and Wales. A preliminary report has been issued.

Coleg Cambria is a large and popular college in Connah's Quay. It offers a range of full and part-time courses as well as apprenticeships. In an inspection in 2007 the college gained the highest possible grade 1 inspection ratings for its Work Based Learning provision, it was formerly Deeside College, but a College Merger was finalised in August 2013 with Yale College Wrexham, It is now one of the largest College's in the UK and the largest in Wales.

The Deeside Shuttle Bus is a service which enables people to travel to and from work at a time convenient to them. The Deeside Shuttle Bus allows local residents to book a seat on the bus at a time and place specified by them, which will take them to work on Deeside Industrial Park. It has proved very popular and has now grown to serve other local areas.

The Deeside area is covered by both the Moel-y-Parc and the Winter Hill transmitters. The area receives BBC Wales and BBC North West and ITV Wales and ITV Granada although the North West services generally do not provide news coverage of events on the Welsh side of the border.

Local radio stations include Capital North West and Wales, Chester's Dee 106.3, BBC Radio Merseyside and Radio City 96.7.

There are three main newspapers for Deeside: these are The Evening Leader, a Deeside edition of the Chester Chronicle and a Deeside edition of the Chester and District Standard.

Deeside.com is an online news and information website covering the Deeside area, it is a founder member of the Independent Community News Network (ICNN) the UK representative body for the independent community and hyperlocal news sector