Shotwick - village street

Image: © Colin Park Taken: 3 Feb 2022

Many old houses line the village street leading to the old church and today the village is very much a backwater. Shotwick however was once very much more important. The original course of the River Dee almost lapped up to the wall of the churchyard and once it was an important route across the marshes into northeast Wales. This saved a much longer route inland which had the additional hazard of encountering highwaymen. With the River Dee too shallow to take larger ships up to Chester, Shotwick by the 14th century became a trading port where goods were unloaded to continue overland to Chester. With the River Dee slowly silting up a new channel was cut by Dutch Engineers between 1732 and 1736 up to Chester and sea trade at Shotwick gradually dwindled.

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