Glyn Ceiriog (Welsh: Glynceiriog[3]) is the principal settlement of the Ceiriog Valley and a community in Wrexham County Borough, north-east Wales. 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.
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 of Wrexham County Borough, in which it currently remains.
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.[4]
Glyn Ceiriog is located in the Ceiriog Valley, a valley created by the River Ceiriog. Geologically, the area has Ordovician 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:
Canolfan Ceiriog Centre
• 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
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.
The Welsh novelist Islwyn Ffowc Elis spent most of his childhood on a farm near Glyn Ceiriog, although he was born in Wrexham.
The actress Sarah Edwards was born in Glyn Ceirog in 1882.
Lancelot Hogben, 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)