Day 4: 5/7/85 Prestatyn to Rhyl

Distance:  6.6 km ( 4.1 miles)      Total Distance:   28 miles

Well, this wasn't exactly a walk in the countryside. A concrete promenade covered the sea-front between Pontins holiday camp at Prestatyn and the lifeboat station at Rhyl.  The day was windy and damp and there weren't too many holiday-makers to be seen even though it is the height of the holiday season. The Sun Centre at Rhyl looked crowded with families escaping from the poor summer weather. 

Start of day 4 - The Grand Hotel - Prestatyn.

I felt quite under the weather myself having not fully recovered from a dose of Spanish tummy picked up on a recent business trip to Barcelona. I therefore stopped for the day at Rhyl and walked back along the promenade to Prestatyn.  I can recommend the public conveniences at Rhyl.

Rhyl seafront (© David E @ Flickr)

I returned to Coventry that evening feeling pretty washed out but content with the fact that I had at least started this project. 

Day 3: 4/7/85 Flint to Prestatyn

Distance:  24.9 km ( 15.5 miles)      Total Distance:  24 miles

I parked the car near Flint railway station.  The day started by walking past Flint Castle, Edward I's first castle in Wales and completed in around 1280.  Not long after it was completed it was attacked by the Welsh - perhaps they didn't like the rendering.

I met some local fishermen and sought their advice about how to round the headland. The headland had been occupied by the Courtaulds Castle Mill works, now closed.

Flint Castle - start of Day 3

Courtaulds Castle Mill, Flint, with the castle at the bottom.(Courtaulds archives)

There were three muddy river inlets before reaching Greenfield, where I had to cut quite far inland. The weather was hot and made me thirsty!  I passed the Courtaulds Greenfield site which was about to shut down. I know this because I work for Courtaulds.  I was shocked by the large size of the factory and the fact that it looked quite modern from the outside and wonder why the economics of making viscose are not working out. 

Courtaulds Greenfield - soon to close - which may explain the lack of security fence.

Part of the Courtaulds Greenfield site being demolished in 1984 (Courtaulds archives)

At Mostyn Quay is moored the Duke of Lancaster, a former Sealink ferry.  The new owner plans to have it  converted to a pleasure boat. On shore there was an open-air market where I bought lunch and a Hawaiian shirt for £2 which I discovered was made from viscose - appropriate considering I had just passed the Courtaulds Greenfield site that produces viscose. You see what a bit of hot weather does - it makes you dress tropically.

Duke of Lancaster at Mostyn Quay.

I found I could not get out of Mostyn Quay, owned by the coal board, so I had to go inland over a railway until Ffynnongroew where the tide had gone out sufficiently to allow me to go along the beach. 

I was pleased to find I was able to walk through the Point of Ayr colliery which has been operating for over 100 years,  and out to the lighthouse, the most northerly point on mainland Wales.  This was the first stretch of holiday sands I had seen on the walk.  For the first time I felt I was on the coast proper and not on an estuary.

Day 2: 3/7/85 Shotton to Flint

Distance:  8.5 km ( 5.3 miles)      Total Distance:   9 miles

I set off from Hawarden Bridge and soon discovered that it is possible to walk all the way to the wharf in Connah's Quay on the mud flats through fields of grazing cattle.  Connah's Quay is apparently named after the landlord of one of the local pubs - Connah.  That bit makes sense, but why should the quay now be known as a wharf and what's the difference I wonder? 

Hawarden Bridge - the end of day 1 and the start of day 2

I managed to walk on the seaward side of all buildings except one. Then it was over more mud-flats, cutting inland to avoid walking through the RSPB bird sanctuary at Oakenholt where many oyster-catchers and herons were enjoying the sun.

Beside the River Dee - I have a feeling those cooling towers are no longer in operation.

I was hoping to fill me log with tales of people I had met, old seafaring folk and alike, but I haven't seen any yet - perhaps they are all at sea.  Talking of the sea - where is it?  All I have seen so far are mud flats.  

I stopped walking at Flint and caught the bus back to Shotton and camped just east of Prestatyn.  I bet until then you had a vision of me carrying a 50lb backpack.  No, I'm a lazy walker and prefer to just walk with a daypack - the Mars bars themselves are heavy enough. 

Day 1: 2/7/85 Wales border to Shotton

Distance:  5.8 km ( 3.6 miles)      Total Distance:  3.6 miles

I could lie and explain how this project took months of planning, working out routes and booking accomodation but I won't. The one thing I had to decide was where to start and which way to go and the rest would be left to chance and following my rule - keep as close to the coast as possible.......and stop when I have had enough. The choice of walking the Wales coast first was simple - it was where I grew up, and it's shorter. 

It ctertainly wasn't an easy start to the walk.  The first thing I had to do was get to the Wales/England border.  This just happened to be a fair way from a road and in a firing range.  Added to that that the red flags were flying indicating that firing was taking place. It was enough to make me think that the Gods were conspiring against me before I had even started.

Start of walk and the flags are out for me - and no its not a Welsh flag!

The walk therefore started by strolling past through the MOD firing range, even though the red flags were flying, keeping out of sight behind the earth bank.  As the years past there was one warning I grew to obey and that was the red flags of firing ranges! 

The rest of the day's walk was through what was left of Shotton Steel Works, over the waste dumping ground, through the little dock where the last strip steel was still being loaded onto coasters, through the plant's chemical storage area and under the buzzing electric pylons.  Wild poppies were in flower while a heron and a sparrow hawk patrolled the marsh land behind the firing range.

It was hard to imagine that the vast sprawling steelworks, built on reclaimed marshland, once employed 13,000 people and had over 30 steam trains.

I crossed the River Dee using Hawarden Bridge on a path adjoining the railway track and back into Connah's Quay where I had left my car.  Hawarden Bridge was built in 1889 and was responsible for opening up the marshland for industrial development.  It was originally a swing bridge where the central section swung sideways to allow shipping to pass but it no longer opens and is welded shut.

Howarden Bridge, early 1900s, when it still swung open.

I'd walked just over 7 miles but it was a 'there and back walk' so was only 3.6 miles of 'coastline' and certainly didn't see much of the sea as such. If I had been hoping for tall cliffs and crashing waves then I'd started the walk in the wrong place.

The wild flowers made even an old steel works look attractive.

View from inside Shotton towards the power station at Connah's Quay

Inside Shotton in the 1970s

Photo courtesy of Corus and thanks to Corus Archives, Shotton Works.

Ted's Big Adventure - Coventry News - News - Coventry Telegraph

Ted's Big Adventure - Coventry News - News - Coventry Telegraph