Sidney Massie's Flint Sketch

Today’s ‘image’ is a drawing of Flint Town completed in 1826 by Miss Sidney Massie, of Pulford near Chester. Sidney Massie was from an old Cheshire family who lived at Coddington, near Chester but who were connected by marriage with the Salisbury’s of Leadbrook, Oakenholt, Flint – whose names we still see in Flint place names today.

The illustration shows a long lost view of Castle Street and Church Street, Flint - as the town appeared before the Chester to Holyhead Railway passed through the town in 1848, severing it in two. 

Sidney Massie draws her image from the entrance to the old Flintshire County Prison at the Castle, then known as Castle Terrace. The road leading to the entrance gates of ‘Flint Gaol’ passes over the old Flint Castle Moat, which formerly separated the Castle from the town itself. The stonework ruins on each side of this road are the remains of the Tower which in earlier times commanded the drawbridge of Flint Castle as shown in John Speed's Flint Town Plan which I posted here a short time ago. Incidentally, Flint has its own song called 'The Yard' (see some great images of Flint and listen to it  here on You Tube - words below) which many believe may have been a nod to the yard of the old Flint Gaol where you would 'lodge' for any misdemeanours committed in the town.

Interestingly, the house on the high ground in the distance is Cornist Hall which, then as a farmhouse, had latterly had been the home of Lord Nelson’s Fleet Rear Admiral, Thomas Totty  and the hills beyond are Halkyn Mountains and the ancient Hillfort at Moel Y Gaer which we have regularly posted about too.

THE YARD

There's a lodging house down Castle Street,

Where they have ham and eggs three times a week,

Oh! You should here them yell

When they hear that dinner bell.

In that old lodging house down Castle Street.

CHORUS:

The yard, the yard, the old old yard.

The yard, the yard, the old old yard.

There is a lodging house down Castle Street

Down by the old coal yard.

CHORUS repeated

#Flint #TheYard #Flintshire #Flintcastle #Cornist #FlintGaol #RoyalNavy #AdmiralTotty