BASINGWERK, a ruined Cistertian abbey in Holy well parish, Flint; on the coast of the estuary of the Dee, 1 mile NE of Holywell. The abbey was founded in 1131, by Ranulph, Earl of Chester; and was a beautiful structure in early English. The ruin comprises only the south transept of the church, with parts of the out-buildings; and it stands on a gentle eminence, with very pleasing view; but is marred both by a neglected state of its own interior, and by the neighbourhood of smelting-works and mean houses. A castle stood near it, on the margin of Watt's dyke, wielding command over a wide country; but has all disappeared excepting mere vestiges. The abbey is called also Dinas-Basing and Greenfield.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))