According to Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust, 'Henllan lies a little less than 3km to the north-west of Denbigh on a secondary road, the B5382. The location is an interesting one in as much as the early village is set on both the top and the upper sides of a limestone spur, the detached church tower on an outcrop, the church itself lower down the slope. To the west is the deep valley cut by Afon Meirchion, to the south a small, dry re-entrant. The modern village has grown considerably in the last century and a half, spreading eastwards away from the historic core.'
'The name of the village is significant. Presumably, though not certainly, it has an ecclesiastical origin, but at what point the name 'old church' was applied to the ecclesiastical foundation and the settlement is not known. However, the name could conceivably refer to an otherwise unknown enclosure, probably not associated with a church, but one albeit of very early date. The church dedication to St Sadwrn may indicate an early medieval (i.e. pre-Conquest) origin, but the first documentary reference to it is in 1291 when it was described as a chapelry subservient to St Asaph though with the relatively high value of £16 10s which might offer a hint that the church in earlier centuries was of greater importance than it was reduced to in the high Middle Ages. The presence of a possible holy well ? Ffynnon Sadwrn ? close to Fox Hall, immediately to the south-east of the village, also focuses in on the obscure saint, and probably strengthens the argument for an early medieval foundation.
'The earliest reference to the church and by association the settlement that was to develop here is the Pope Nicholas? Taxation of 1291 where "Helan" appears, a little too late to determine whether the creation of the new castle and settlement at Denbigh, the former presumably with its own associated chapel, could have had some influence on the name applied to what was certainly the earlier settlement. Later, in 1311, it was recorded as "Henthlan" and in 1518 it appeared in a document in its modern form. What is worth remarking is the relatively small number of references to Henllan in medieval documents.'
'To John Ogilby in the 1670s, Henllan was `a little village seated on an eminence?, while Edward Lhuyd at the end of the 17th century reported about thirteen houses around the church and another eighteen not far off, suggesting a not insignificant community.'
'The layout of Henllan is intriguing, with its numerous roads and lanes forming an irregular network of thoroughfares and `islands?, unusually complex for this part of north-east Wales. It is the lanes themselves that provide both hints and uncertainties about the origins and development of Henllan. Some can be dismissed as recent additions to the village-scape. The narrow lane that runs down from the church tower to Llindir Street past the Institute cuts
across an existing `island?, while the zig-zagging lane beside Plas-meifod give the appearance of a road established in a pre-existing landscape.'
'At the core of Henllan are four or probably five routeways coming in from various points of the compass, and focussing not on the church itself which would almost certainly have been here before any settlement developed, but on the ground immediately to the east of it. Some of these tracks certainly had a long history, originating back in the Middle Ages if not earlier. That approaching from the north-west was referred to as `the way leading from the parish
church of Henllan towards Abergley? in 1537, that coming up from Nantglyn to the south was referenced in 1518, and there are various 16th-century references, too, to the road from Denbigh which came in from the east. The pattern created however is slightly irregular, particularly with the lane coming down from the north-east and exiting to the south-west, and this suggests that there was probably not a well-defined thoroughfare through Henllan but an
area of open ground through which tracks threaded an irregular course.'
The village retains several of the amenities it had at the turn of the twentieth century. The first, second and third editions of the 25inch OS maps, published in 1874, 1899 and 1912 respectively, show that Henllan had a church dedicated to St. Sadwrn (NPRN 400580); a Wesleyan Methodist chapel (NPRN 7576) and a Calvinistic Methodist chapel. In addition, there was a post office, a school and a public house - the Llidir Inn (NPRN 27441), which dates from the late 16th century. The Calvinistic chapel, the church, the school, post office and public house all remain open in the twenty-first century.
Sources: modern and historic OS maps; 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. 49-51)
M. Ryder, RCAHMW, 9th January 2019