BAGILLT, a township, in the parish of HOLYWELL, Holywell division of the hundred of COLESHILL, county of FLINT, NORTH
WALES, 3 miles (E. by S.) from Holywell. The population is returned with the parish. This place, which is divided into
Bagillt-Vawr and Bagillt-Vechan, is situated close on the southern shore of the estuary of the Dee, on a branch of the
great road from Chester to Holyhead, which, branching off at Northop, passes through Flint, and joins the main line at
Holywell. The Halkin mountain, rich in mineral treasures, rises on the south-west; and on the western side of this
eminence the ancient line of demarcation, called Wat's Dyke, passes through this township to its junction with the Dee,
near Basingwerk abbey. Here are very extensive collieries, affording employment to upwards of two hundred and fifty men,
and yielding annually more than forty thousand tons of coal, which is chiefly exported coastwise to Chester, Liverpool,
and the distant parts of North Wales. There are also three separate and extensive establishments for smelting lead-ore,
which annually produce upwards of one hundred thousand tons of that metal, and connected with them are refineries for
extracting from the lead the proportion of silver which it contains: the amount of the latter metal, thus annually
procured, averages about forty-two thousand ounces. Subordinate to these principal establishments are also extensive works
for manufacturing the lead into sheets, pipes, and bars; and in the various departments nearly three hundred men are
constantly employed. Steam-vessels, which maintain a constant communication between Holywell and Liverpool, ply daily
between the latter place and the quay at Bagillt. There are places of worship for Independents, and for Calvinistic and
Wesleyan Methodists. Between Gadlys and Pentre Bagillt is an eminence, called Bryn  Dychwelwch, or " the Return Hill,"
from a tradition that it is the spot on which Henry II. gave the order to his forces to retreat, when engaged in the
battle of Counsyllt, or Coleshill, for the particulars of which, see the article on HOLYWELL.