How to find us

Gladstone's Library is in the heart of Hawarden village. It is easily accessible by road, just 15 minutes' drive from the M56 and close to the A55, A548 and A494.

Satnavs should be set to travel to CH5 3DF. Please ensure that your Satnav is up to date before inputting our details - we don't want you to end up in the wrong place!

Church Lane is easy to miss - it is a small turning opposite the Gallery cafe, directly after (or before, depending on direction of travel) the pelican crossing in the centre of the village.

If you find yourself going downhill past the war memorial, you've taken the wrong turning - take the first right, follow the road round, go right again and have another go!

We do have some car parking on site, but if full there is a good (free) public car park on Tinkersdale (A550), five minutes' walk away.

Free parking is also available at Flintshire Record Office on Rectory Lane.

Unless it is more convenient to travel from or via Wrexham, we recommend that you come via Chester (only six miles from Hawarden) and travel onwards by bus or taxi.

Chester is only two hours from London, with trains leaving from Euston.

It is also 20 minutes' train ride from Crewe.

Hawarden station can be reached from Wrexham or Liverpool.

From Wrexham, take the service to Bidston.

From Liverpool, take the Wirral line (green on the map) to Bidston, then change to the Transport for Wales service to Wrexham.

Do not disembark at Hawarden Bridge - it is an unstaffed station with almost no mobile phone signal.

When you disembark at Hawarden Station, walk out of the station, turn right, and follow the road until you see the Library (a few minutes' walk).

To plan your journey, please visit the National Rail website.

Please note: Splitting your train ticket may result in a cheaper fare!

Buses to Hawarden are the 4 and the X4. They depart from the bus stop opposite Chester train station, to the side of the Town Crier pub. Before 7pm departures are roughly every 30 minutes, after 7pm there is roughly one an hour until 11pm. 

Gladstone's Library has a special partnership with Arriva Buses Wales to offer discounted M-Tickets to adults wishing to travel to Gladstone's Library from Chester. Simply enter the code GLADNW on the M-Ticket app to receive a £2 discount on Adult Day Tickets. And when you get here, present your paper or mobile ticket for the day of your visit at Food for Thought and receive a free cup of tea or filter coffee (one drink per ticket). Please ensure your region is 'Wales', and the 'Wales and North West' zone is selected.

Further information and bus timetables can be found on the Arriva Bus Wales website here. Find out more about Arriva M-Tickets (including how to download the app) here.

Arriva tickets and the Arriva M-Ticket App are the property and responsibility of Arriva Bus Wales. All enquiries should be directed to Arriva Bus.

Black cabs are available from outside the station. The fare is roughly £20 (less by pre-booked mini cab).

If you are in Chester city centre, the number 11 bus leaves from Chester Bus Interchange. Please see the timetable here.

You have three options:

Bus from airport to Liverpool South Parkway > Merseyrail to Lime Street Station > Merseyrail to Chester > Bus or taxi to Hawarden

OR

Bus from airport to Lime Street > Merseyrail to Chester > Bus to Hawarden

OR

Bus from airport to Lime Street > Merseyrail to Bidston > Arriva Trains to Hawarden

Further information and route planning can be found on the Merseyrail website.

Trains depart regularly from Manchester Airport to Chester. Once there, follow the options given for Chester train station.

Keep your fingers crossed for the proposed private airfield at Hawarden!

1. Download the Gladstones_Library_TomTom.zip POI file and save it to a location on your computer. Unzip (extract) the files. The zip file contains three files: an .ov2 & two .bmp files.
2. Attach your TomTom device or TomTom Memory Card to your computer. How to do this this varies from model to model. Please see your TomTom documentation for instructions on how to do this for your device.
3. Using Computer (located in the Windows Start Menu, on older Windows computers this is called My Computer) navigate to the Great Britain map directory or Western Europe map directory. (Apple Mac users should use Finder to locate the directory). Copy the .ov2 and .bmp files to this directory.
4. Disconnect your TomTom or remove and replace your TomTom memory card into your TomTom. Restart your TomTom and go to Change Preferences, Manage POI, Add POI and select Gladstone's Library.
5. To navigate to Gladstone's Library select: Navigate to..., Point of Interest, Gladstone's Library. Select Gladstone's Library and follow the on-screen instructions.

For more information please refer to the official TomTom website.

DOWNLOAD FILES

If you have any questions regarding the use of these files please contact support@interestingpoint.co.uk

Before you start:

1. You will need to use the Garmin POI Loader software. If you do not have this you can obtain it from the Garmin POI Loader download page.
2. If you have already installed some custom POI files on your Garmin device, take care to put these POI files into the same folder as your other POI files. (They can be in their own subfolder.)

To install the POI files

1. Download the Gladstones_Library_Garmin.zip POI file and save it to a location on your computer. Unzip (extract) the POI files into a folder on your computer. The zip file contains two files, a .csv file and a .bmp file.
2. After you have installed the Garmin POI Loader program (see above), connect your Garmin device (or your Garmin memory card) to your computer PC using the lead supplied by Garmin (or an appropriate card reader if you are using a memory card).
3. If the Garmin POI Loader program does not start automatically, start it yourself.
4. In the Garmin POI Loader program, browse to your POI folder and then follow the on-screen instructions and prompts.
5. To navigate to Gladstone's Library select: Where To?, Extras, Custom POIs. Select Gladstone's Library and then select Gladstone's Library once more.

For more information please refer to the official Garmin website.

DOWNLOAD FILES

If you have any questions regarding the use of these files please contact support@interestingpoint.co.uk

1. Download the Gladstones_Library_Navman.zip POI file and save it to a location on your computer. Unzip (extract) the POI files into a folder on your computer. The zip file contains two files, a .csv file and a .bmp file.
2. Every version of Navman has different instructions for uploading the POI file. Please refer to user guide that accompanied your device.
3. Typically this will involve the downloading and use of the NavDesk software from the Navman website.
4. If you no longer have the user guide for your Navman device, you can download user guides for all models of Navman equipment from the Navman User Guides.

For more information please refer to the official Navman website.

DOWNLOAD FILES

If you have any questions regarding the use of these files please contact support@interestingpoint.co.uk

1. Download the Gladstones_Library_Google.zip POI zip file and save it to a location on your computer. Unzip (extract) the files. The download contains three files: a .kml file, a .bmp and a .png file.
2. In Google Earth click File, Open... and browse to the location of .kml file. Highlight the .kml file and click the Open button. A new Gladstones_Library category will appear in the Google Earth map display.
3. To allocate the Gladstone's Library icon to the new placemark, expand the list, right-click on the Gladstone's Library entry and click Properties.
4. In the Edit Placemark dialog click the icon button alongside the placemark name.
5. Click the Add Custom Icon button and browse to the extracted files. Select the .png file. Click on OK and OK once more to apply the icon.
6. Right click on the parent placemarker item in the list (labelled Gladstones_Library) and select Properties.
7. In the Edit Folder dialog select the Style, Color tab and click the Share Style button. The icon will now be used for all of the placemarkers in the Gladstones_Library category
8. Click File, Save to My Places to save your changes.

DOWNLOAD FILES

If you have any questions regarding the use of these files please contact support@interestingpoint.co.uk

Before you start:

1. Custom Google Maps are stored in user's Google Drives. You will need a Google account. You can get a Google account by signing up (it is free) at: Create your Google Account
2. This uses the same Gladstones_Library_Google.zip file as the Google Earth process described above.
3. This process uses the new Google My Maps, not the classic Google Maps.
4. Google My Maps is located here: Google My Maps.

To install the POI files:

1. Download the Gladstones_Library_Google.zip POI zip file and save it to a location on your computer. Unzip (extract) the files. The download contains three files: a .kml file, a .bmp and a .png file (these last two are not used in this process).
2. Browse to Google My Maps (see link above) and click the Create a new map button.
3. Click on the Import link (beneath Untitled Layer).
4. Drag the .kml file into the large white area that appears on the screen (or click the blue Select a file from your computer button and browse to the location of the .kml file, highlight the file and click Open).
5. The map locations will appear in the map, and the text that previously said Untitled Layer will now read Gladstones_Library.
6. If you wish, you can click the text at the top left of the screen that reads Untitled Map and give the map a name you will remember. All of the changes you make are saved automatically into your Google Drive.
7. Android users can install the Google My Maps app onto their device and directly use their custom maps on their Android device to navigate with.
8. Apple or other users can use Google My Maps in the browser of their devices.

For more information please refer to My Maps on the Google Play Store.

DOWNLOAD FILES

If you have any questions regarding the use of these files please contact support@interestingpoint.co.uk