(pronounced ''Harden''; in
Flintshire , north
Wales , a few miles from the
City of
Chester .
Hawarden Airport is the only public airfield in north Wales, although services are intermittent. Its primary function is to serve the
Raytheon and
BAE Systems Aerospace factories in the adjacent village of Broughton, where BAE manufacture the wings of the
Airbus airliners before they are flown in a
Beluga Cargo Aircraft to
Bremen ,
Germany for equipping (A330/340 & A300 Wings) or
Hamburg ,
Germany and
Toulouse ,
France (A320 family wings) for final assembly of the complete aircraft. The wings of the
A380 Airbus are too large to be flown out, and are instead transported via the nearby
Port of
Mostyn .
Hawarden's most famous residents are the former
Prime Minister ,
William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898), who lived in
Hawarden Castle -- the home of his wife's family, the Glynnes; and the professional footballer
Michael Owen (b. 1979) who, although born a few miles away in
Chester and thus eligible to play for England, was raised in Hawarden and lived a few miles away at
Northop until his transfer to
Real Madrid in the summer of 2004. Owen famously bought a small street of houses for his extended family in the adjacent village of
Ewloe .
Gladstone bequeathed his library, now known as ''
St Deiniol's Library '', to the town.
Near Hawarden is an area of flat land called because it was formed by silting at the head of the estuary of the river Dee.
Hawarden High School dates back to 1606 and was attended not only by Michael Owen, but also
Gary Speed , who has captained the Wales football team. Opposite the High School is the Gladstone Playing Fields the home of Gladstone Bowling Club. This Crown Green Bowling Club has a membership of over 120 and where new members will always find a warm welcome.
