History
Buckley was an Anglo-Saxon location, with some of its houses later recorded in the Norman Domesday Book of the 11th century. However, the first documented evidence of its existence dates from 1294 when it was described as the pasturage of the Manor of Ewloe, spelled as "Bokkeley".
The name Buckley may derive from the Old English bok lee, meaning meadow, or field. The likely meaning of the name was "clearing in a beech wood" (with boc meaning beech tree and ley meaning wood, glade or clearing). The name could also have been construed from bucc, a buck or deer; or bwlch y clai, meaning clay hole.
In 1420, Henry V presented Ewloe and the pastorage of Buckley to his wife, Catherine of Valois, as a wedding present. It was worth £26 per annum.
The town became an industrial heartland for pottery and coal mining between the 17th and 19th centuries. The first was opened in 1737. However, it only grew into any kind of prominence during the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century, when coal and clay were extensively mined there, and the name Buckley became synonymous with the production of various fire-clay and pottery products. By the early 19th century, there were 14 potteries in the town.
Buckley was a popular location for mining, as there were many faults in local rock formations that allowed seams of coal to be mined directly from the surface. Its heavy, clay soil also allowed for excellent pottery and bricks to be manufactured. Bricks from Buckley were transported all across the United Kingdom and as far as the United States, as Buckley became a brickworking centre. A great deal of people moved into the area, particularly from Ireland and Liverpool to find work in the mining and brick industries, giving the town a distinctive accent. Many pottery and earthenware products manufactured were taken on the backs of donkeys to either Chester market or exported via the River Dee, as early as the reign of Elizabeth I. The last pottery kiln was fired in 1946. The site of the brickworks is now being redeveloped as a housing estate. However, a local cement works is still in operation.
In 1932, a tradition started in Buckley of running an annual pantomime. Dennis Griffiths produced a version of Dick Whittington in 1933, and ran the pantomime for 27 years, famously using the programme to invite any and all complaints to arrive written "on the back of a 10 shilling note (non-returnable)".
In the Second World War, a Nazi German Luftwaffe plane, most likely on its way to blitz Liverpool was shot down and crash landed in a nearby district, with the plane's engine crashing into a small lake known locally as 'The Trap'. The pilot survived, captured by a Special Constable, Peter Griffiths and taken to Hawarden Prisoner of War camp.
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