Nantglyn is a small village situated approximately four miles south west of Denbigh. According to the Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust, 'Nantglyn occupies the tip of an interfluvial spur, just above a small stream flowing eastwards from the foothills of Mynydd Hiraethog to meet a larger watercourse, the Lliwen, in a
somewhat broader valley a few hundred metres to the east of the settlement. The church occupies the lip of a natural terrace above the stream, with the historic core of the village stretching up the hill behind. The B5435 passes through the southern edge of the village, with the B4501 from Denbigh, 6km to the north-east, meeting it here.'
'Translated as the "stream in the valley", Nantglyn is first recorded as Nantlym in the Norwich Taxation of 1254 and in the later Lincoln Taxation of 1291 as Nantclyn. Nantglyn makes a first appearance in 1636. St Mordeyrn's chapel to the east of the village must represent the earliest foundation here and has been commented on by antiquaries since the 16th century. Whether its earlier status is in anyway commemorated by the suggestive name of the nearby farm, Clasmor, remains to be ascertained. However, Edward Lhuyd's Parochialia referred to the right of sanctuary here, something that was normally an attribute of the longer established and more important churches, and coupled with the fact that in the 14th century dues were paid to abbates here, the implication is that Nantglyn was probably not an ordinary, simple pre-Conquest chapel. There is too a final observation, this from John Leland, the king's antiquary, who in the 1530s recorded that "there is ? a chappelle by a paroch church in a place caullid corruptely Nanclin for Nantglyn .. where as divers sainctes were of auncient tyme buried".'
'Even allowing for an early medieval foundation of unknown status at Nantglyn, the emergence of settlement and its later development at Nantglyn are obscure, with virtually no known documentary evidence to throw any light on its earlier history. The first reliable statement comes from Edward Lhuyd's respondent at the very end of the 17th century who stated that there were six houses by the church. And it was little different two hundred years later when the Ordnance Survey produced their first large-scale mapping.'
The first edition of the 25inch OS maps, published in 1875, shows that the village had a public house called the Victoria Inn; a National School for boys and girls (NPRN 411157), a church dedicated to St. James (NPRN 400595) and two chapels - Salem Welsh Independent chapel (NPRN 7826), which was built a little to the south of the village centre, and Soar Welsh Calvinistic Methodist chapel (NPRN 7827) which was located slightly less than half a mile west of the village. Although the public house and the school have closed, there is a large playing field just north of the old school house, known as King George's playing fields. Salem Welsh Independent chapel appears to have been converted into a residential dwelling, but both Soar Welsh Calvinistic Methodist chapel and St. James' churches remain open as places of worship.
Sources: modern and historic OS maps; google street view; Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust Report No 1257 - 'Historic settlements in Denbighshire' by R J Silvester, C H R Martin and S E Watson, published in March 2014 (p. 104-105)
M. Ryder, RCAHMW, 8th January 2019