Glyn Ceiriog is the principal settlement of the

Ceiriog Valley The Ceiriog Valley ( cy, Dyffryn Ceiriog) is the valley of the River Ceiriog in north-east Wales. Its Welsh name, "Dyffryn Ceiriog", is the name of an electoral ward of Wrexham County Borough. The ward is the largest ward of the county borough ...

and a

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, ...

Wrexham County Borough Wrexham County Borough ( cy, Bwrdeistref Sirol Wrecsam) is a county borough, with city status, in the north-east of Wales. It borders England to the east and south-east, Powys to the south-west, Denbighshire to the west and Flintshire to the ...

, north-east

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. Glyn Ceiriog translates simply as Ceiriog Valley, though there are other villages in the valley. The village and community is technically known, in traditional Welsh naming style, as Llansantffraid Glyn Ceiriog or sometimes Llansanffraid Glyn Ceiriog, which means church of St Ffraid (the Welsh name of Saint Brigid of Kildare) in the Ceiriog Valley, but it has come to be known simply as Glyn Ceiriog, or even Glyn for short. The name Llansanffraid is now more associated with other villages of the same name. It is in the Clwyd South Senedd constituency and Clwyd South UK parliamentary constituency. A former slate mining village, it lies on the

River Ceiriog The River Ceiriog ( cy, Afon Ceiriog) is an long river in north east Wales, whose name may derive from a term meaning "favoured one". It is a tributary of the River Dee. It rises at an altitude of around on the south east slopes of Moel Ffern ...

and on the B4500 road, about 6 miles (10 km) west of Chirk. It is south of

Llangollen Llangollen () is a town and community, situated on the River Dee, in Denbighshire, Wales. Its riverside location forms the edge of the Berwyn range, and the Dee Valley section of the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Bea ...

Geography and administration

Civic history

Glyn Ceiriog was historically administered as the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

of ''Llansantffraid Glyn Ceiriog'', ("St Ffraid's in the Ceiriog Valley"). From 1889 until 1974, Glyn Ceiriog was part of the

administrative county An administrative county was a first-level administrative division in England and Wales from 1888 to 1974, and in Ireland from 1899 until either 1973 (in Northern Ireland) or 2002 (in the Republic of Ireland). They are now abolished, although mos ...

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...

, which was divided into various rural districts. From 1895 to 1935, Glyn Ceiriog was in the

Chirk Rural District Chirk was a rural district in the administrative county of Denbighshire from 1894 to 1935. The rural district was formed from parts of Oswestry and Corwen Rural Sanitary Districts. The district contained three civil parishes: *Chirk * Glyntrae ...

, which merged in 1935 with Llansilin Rural District to form the

Ceiriog Rural District Ceiriog was a rural district in the administrative county of Denbighshire from 1935 to 1974. The rural district was formed by a County Review Order in 1935 from the merger of Chirk and Llansillin Rural districts. The district was named after th ...

. Glyn Ceiriog was in the Ceiriog Rural District from 1935 to 1974. In 1974, Denbighshire was abolished as an administrative county, and Glyn Ceiriog was incorporated into the Glyndŵr district of the new county of Clwyd. Both of those were dissolved in 1996, and Glyn Ceiriog became a part of the new

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

of Wrexham County Borough, in which it currently remains.

Political representation

Today, Glyn Ceiriog is administered by

Wrexham County Borough Council Wrexham County Borough Council () is the governing body for Wrexham County Borough, a principal area in north Wales, covering Wrexham and the surrounding area. History Elections take place every five years. The Labour Party held power on the ...

, is in the

electoral ward, and has an independent

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

. The Llansantffraid Glyn Ceiriog Community Council meets every fourth Thursday in the month. Ten councillors represent the villages of Glyn Ceiriog, Garth, Pandy and Nantyr. Since 2011, Glyn Ceiriog has been represented in the Senedd by

Ken Skates Kenneth Christian Skates MS (born 2 April 1976) is a Welsh Labour politician. Skates has represented the constituency of Clwyd South in the Senedd since the election of 2011. He is an alumnus of the University of Cambridge, and worked as a j ...

, the

Welsh Labour Welsh Labour ( cy, Llafur Cymru) is the branch of the United Kingdom Labour Party in Wales and the largest party in modern Welsh politics. Welsh Labour and its forebears won a plurality of the Welsh vote at every UK general election since 192 ...

Member of the Senedd for Clwyd South. From 2010 to 2019, Glyn Ceiriog was represented in the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

by Susan Jones, the Labour Party

member of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for Clwyd South. Since the 2019 general election, it has been represented by

Simon Baynes Simon Robert Maurice Baynes (born 21 April 1960) is a British Conservative politician who served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration from July to September 2022. He was elected as the Member o ...

of the Conservative Party.

Physical geography/Geology

Glyn Ceiriog is located in the Ceiriog Valley, a valley created by the

. Geologically, the area has

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start of the Silurian Period Mya. T ...

and Silurian strata. The soil is thin and peaty.

Village Resources

Glyn Ceiriog, being the principal village for the Ceiriog Valley, is home to many of the Valley’s resources: • Village Post Office
• Cross Stores Village Shop
• Glyn Valley Hotel
• The Oak / Y Dderwen
• Valley Doctors Surgery
• Valley Pharmacy
• Christian Centre
• Ceiriog Memorial Hall
• Llansanffraid Church

Industry

Glyn Ceiriog was once the home of extensive slate quarries. The

Glyn Valley Tramway Glyn means "Valley" in Welsh and may refer to: *Glyn (name), including a list of people with the name *Baron Glyn, a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom *Glyn baronets, created for members of the Glyn family *Glyn Ceiriog, a former slate ...

was built to take the slate to a wharf on the Shropshire Union Canal and later to sidings on the Great Western Railway line from Chester to Shrewsbury. Although the valley does not have a primary industry any longer, there are a few recent and long standing manufacturing businesses supplying the valley and beyond.

Transport

Bus services are provided by Bryn Melyn, a subsidiary of

GHA Coaches GHA Coaches was a bus and coach operator serving North East Wales, Cheshire, and Shropshire. It also operated bus services extending into Telford & Wrekin, Staffordshire, Gwynedd, and Merseyside. GHA Coaches ceased trading after entering a ...

. Services operate to

via Chirk and to Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog on service 64. Infrequent services on route 65 connect the village to

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

via Ruabon. Rail services are available from Chirk, away.

Notable residents

A number of Welsh literary figures have lived in or near Glyn Ceiriog. * The 15th century Welsh poet

Guto'r Glyn Guto'r Glyn (c. 1412 – c. 1493) was a Welsh language poet and soldier of the era of the ''Beirdd yr Uchelwyr'' ("Poets of the Nobility") or ''Cywyddwyr'' ("cywydd-men"), the itinerant professional poets of the later Middle Ages. He is consid ...

(1435–1493) is associated with Glyn Ceiriog * The 17th century Welsh poet

Huw Morus Huw Morus or Morys (1622 – 31 August 1709), also known by his bardic name ''Eos Ceiriog'' ("the nightingale of Ceiriog"), was a Welsh poet. One of the most popular and prolific poets of his time, he composed a large number of poems in a variety ...

(1622–1709) was born near Glyn Ceiriog and lived at Pont Y Meibion. * The

Eisteddfod In Welsh culture, an ''eisteddfod'' is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music. The term ''eisteddfod'', which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: , meaning 'sit', and , meaning 'be', means, ac ...

prize-winning poet and

lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoretica ...

, Robert Ellis (Cynddelw) (1812–1875) was a

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...

minister at Glyn Ceiriog Independent Welsh Baptist Chapel, ''Seion'', from 1838 to 1840 * The Welsh novelist

Islwyn Ffowc Elis Islwyn Ffowc Elis (; 17 November 1924 – 22 January 2004) was one of Wales's most popular Welsh-language writers. Born Islwyn Ffoulkes Ellis in Wrexham and raised in Glyn Ceiriog, Elis was educated at the University of Wales colleges of Bangor ...

spent most of his childhood on a farm near Glyn Ceiriog, although he was born in

. * The actress Sarah Edwards was born in Glyn Ceirog in 1882. *

Lancelot Hogben Lancelot Thomas Hogben FRS FRSE (9 December 1895 – 22 August 1975) was a British experimental zoologist and medical statistician. He developed the African clawed frog ''(Xenopus laevis)'' as a model organism for biological research in his ear ...

, an experimental zoologist and medical statistician, moved to the Ceiriog Valley in the late 1950s, and lived in Glyn Ceiriog at the time of his death in 1975.

Bibliography

*Dewi Parry Jones & Robert Owen Jones, "100 Years in the Valley – Y Glyn a Fu" (1998) *Dewi Parry Jones & Robert Owen Jones, "100 Years in the Valley Volume II – Y Glyn a Fu" (1999)

References

External links

*
Llansantffraid Glyn Ceiriog Community Council
{{authority control Villages in Wrexham County Borough