The region has a rich history of industry, here we look back at Flintshire’s industrial heritage, with a piece by local historian the late Elvet Pierce...
NO description of the industries of the Dee could, until fairly recently, have ignored the colliery at Point of Ayr. Here, an aspect of the mining and associated developments is well illustrated that has been virtually forgotten - shipping. Mostyn 1938.
Photo courtesy of the Elvet Pierce collection Starting production in 1885, by the time of the 2000s, employed about 500 workers in various aspects of the works, producing 200,000 tons of coal per year. Described as fully mechanised and with its own power station producing enough power to put surplus into the National Grid, coal was shipped to Ireland and the Isle of Man, as well as being supplied to the home market (right up to the end I still remember picking up coal for home use, in the little mini-pickup, virtually from the pithead). Home market supply made full use of the siding on the main line at Talacre but the supply across the Irish Sea, as both the advertisement and the photograph show, was by ship direct from their own jetty, and using the company’s own ships.
Read more: Coronation, sugar and economy, Flintshire in the 1950s Point of Ayr advert 1938. Courtesy of the Elvet Pierce collection Surprisingly, work had been carried out by this time on the feasibility of extracting motor fuel from coal on site, the conclusion being that if this could be tied in with s.
