Broughton ( cy, Brychdyn) is a large village in

Flintshire , settlement_type = County , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = , image_flag = , image_shield = Arms of Flint ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, close to the Wales–England border, located to the west of the city of

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

, England, in the

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, t ...

of Broughton and Bretton. Along with the nearby village of Bretton, the total population was 5,791 at the 2001 Census, increasing to 5,974 at the 2011 Census. Broughton is home to a large aircraft factory at

Hawarden Airport Hawarden Airport ( cy, Maes Awyr Penarlâg) , is an airport near Hawarden in Flintshire, Wales, near the border with England and west southwest of the English city of Chester. Aviation Park Group (APG) is based at the airport and provides ha ...

. This was completed in 1939 for use by

Vickers-Armstrongs Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, w ...

, who built 5,786

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by ...

bombers.

De Havilland Aircraft The de Havilland Aircraft Company Limited () was a British aviation manufacturer established in late 1920 by Geoffrey de Havilland at Stag Lane Aerodrome Edgware on the outskirts of north London. Operations were later moved to Hatfield in He ...

took over the factory in 1948 and built 2,816 planes of several designs. Today, the plant is an

Airbus Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: '' ...

factory that manufactures wings for the

A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first member of the fami ...

, A330 and

A350 The Airbus A350 is a long-range, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner developed and produced by Airbus. The first A350 design proposed by Airbus in 2004, in response to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, would have been a development of the A330 ...

aircraft. Airbus wings produced there are flown out in Airbus Beluga and BelugaXL planes (while still in construction, larger

A380 The Airbus A380 is a large wide-body airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. It is the world's largest passenger airliner and only full-length double-deck jet airliner. Airbus studies started in 1988, and the project was annou ...

wings were transported by

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels. ...

along the River Dee to the nearby

Mostyn Mostyn is a village and community in Flintshire, Wales, and electoral ward lying on the estuary of the River Dee, located near the town of Holywell. It has a privately owned port that has in the past had a colliery and ironworks and was invo ...

docks). The Broughton factory was featured in the 2011

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

programme ''How to Build a Super Jumbo Wing''. Broughton is home to Cymru Premier

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

team Airbus UK Broughton, who joined the highest division of the Welsh football pyramid in 2004 and remained there for 13 years, before relegation at the end of the 2016/17 season. They subsequently won promotion back to the Welsh Premier League for the 2019/20 season. The club was formed in 1946 as Vickers-Armstrongs, and several name changes took place until it adopted the current name. The club were relegated to the

Cymru North The Cymru North is a regional football league in Wales, covering the northern half of the country. It has clubs with semi-professional status and together with the Cymru South, it forms the second tier of the Welsh football league system. The f ...

after the 2019/20 season, but promoted back into the Cymru Premier for the 2022/23 season. Broughton has a primary school with over 500 pupils and pre-school nursery, which was created when the infant and junior schools amalgamated. The school's most recent ESTYN report rated it "Excellent" in all areas. Its students wear a distinctive purple uniform. The school incorporates the local library, and a playgroup and toddler group are also based there. The village shopping park is known as Broughton Shopping Park, where branches of major stores such as

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues an ...

can be found, in addition to Cineworld IMAX and various restaurants. The village centre has a small collection of shops, and the Offas Dyke Hotel on Broughton Hall Road. The

ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the Channel 3 public broadcast service across all of the United Kingdom except for t ...

drama series ''

Midsomer Murders ''Midsomer Murders'' is a British crime drama television series, adapted by Anthony Horowitz and Douglas Watkinson from the novels in the '' Chief Inspector Barnaby'' book series (created by Caroline Graham), and broadcast on two channels of ...

'' has used Broughton as a

filming location A filming location is a place where some or all of a film or television series is produced, in addition to or instead of using sets constructed on a movie studio backlot or soundstage. In filmmaking, a location is any place where a film crew wi ...

. Broughton Hall was a large manor house situated on the housing estate where Forest Drive is now. Between 1849 and 1964, Broughton was served by Broughton & Bretton railway station. The Broughton War Memorial Institute is situated on Main Road, opposite the junction with Broughton Hall Road. The institute was built in lieu of a memorial stone to commemorate the sacrifice by residents of the village in military conflicts between 1914 and 1919, and hosts groups and events for the benefit of local people all year round. Broughton is twinned with Auzeville-Tolosane (population 3,035), a commune in the suburbs of

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and fr ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Notable people

Horace Mayhew Horace Mayhew (20 June 1845 – 15 August 1926) of Broughton Hall, Flintshire, was a British mining engineer and colliery owner who founded the town of Broughton, Nova Scotia, now one of Canada's most famous ghost towns. He was the son of Jo ...

(1845–1926) of Broughton Hall, a mining engineer and colliery owner, founded the town of

Broughton, Nova Scotia Broughton (2001 pop.: 24) was a former town in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality about 19 kilometers from the city of Sydney, Nova Scotia Sydney is a former city and urban community on the east coast of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, ...

. * Lieutenant-Colonel Sir John Dixon Mayhew (1884 at Broughton Hall – 1954) industrialist, army officer and politician.

References

External links

Photos of Broughton and surrounding area on geograph.org.uk
{{Authority control Villages in Flintshire