Connahs Hey Mound

Description

Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust record reads 'Llwyd (Lhuyd), Pennant and Lewis all refer to a mound, probably motte, on road to Chester in village adjoining Hawarden called Connahs He. Two fields called Big and Little Connahs Hey are known but mound is not.' Lewis writes 'To the west of the church are the remains of an ancient British encampment, called Truman's Hill; and near Broad-lane House are vestiges of another, called Connah's Hill.' Broad Lane was the township in which Hawarden castle was located, but I can not locate a Broad Lane House (Broad Lane house was the name given to the building on which site the castellated mansion called Hawarden Castle was built in the 1750. Lewis separately described the building so his Broad Lane house must be another building). The field names are south of H castle (CPAT give the map ref–SJ327648) but the description of the mound being on the Chester road suggest the mound was north of H castle.

Comments

Since writing the above.
I am, most kindly, informed, by Tricia Hayes, that the Chester Road previous ran through the Hawarden Castle park between the old and new castles and was diverted in 1804. Broad Lane House was the earlier name of the new Hawarden Castle but this did have a precursor house, also called Broad Lane House, to the South East. My suspicion is that when the road was moved the landscaping done to the grounds around the new Hawarden Castle destroyed whatever remained of Connah's Hey, already probably much diminished as the soil would have been dug and used to repair the Chester Road (Lewis describes it as vestigial). Therefore, we are left just to speculate what was Connah's Hey. Lewis, who was no fool but not a trained archaeologist either, called it an ancient British camp. If nothing else this suggests the earthwork he saw was an embanked enclosure, rather than a mound. It may well have been an Iron Age enclosure and on statistical grounds one would have to say this probably the most likely explanation. However, it is also possible that it represents a siege work against Hawarden castle for one of the several recorded assaults on that Castle (1265, 1282, 1643/4) or an unrecorded siege of any other date but particularly the Glyn Dwr revolt of the early C15. If it was siege work though I'd suggest the C17 Civil War as the most likely date, although if Lhuyd's informants writing at the end of the C17 thought it was ancient then perhaps not. (Philip Davis 26/04/2010)
The given map reference is for Broad Lane House, the actually location of the earthwork being lost.