GENUKI : Eglwysbach, St. Martin

Eglwysbach

"A parish in the Union of Llanrwst, chiefly in the hundred of Isdulas, county of Denbigh, but comprising also the township of Maenan in the hundred of Llechwedd Isaf, county of Carnarvon. ..... Its length from north to south is seven miles, and its breadth, in a transverse direction, four: the surface is very hilly, which circumstance causes a great variety of soil, some being extremely barren, and some, on the contrary, tolerably fertile, yielding good crops of corn. The village is situated in a pleasing and fertile vale watered by the river Conway, and the vicinity abounds with agreeable and richly varied scenery."
[A Topographical Dictionary of Wales, 1833 & 1849, Samuel Lewis]

The parish of Eglwysbach comprises the townships of Maenan (in Caernarfonshire); and Esgair Ebrill, Pennant, Cefn y Coed and Bodnod, in Denbighshire.

Church History
Church Records
Civil Registration

Population
Statistics

Church History

Ordnance Survey reference SH 803705.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Martin, was mentioned in the Norwich Taxation of 1254. It was rebuilt in 1782, and restored in 1882.

The Clwyd FHS website has a photograph of the church.

Nonconformist Churches

"Welsh Church Commission - County of Denbigh - The Statistics of the Nonconformist Churches for 1905" lists the following nonconformist places of worship in the Civil parish of Eglwysbach :

Name of Chapel	Denomination	Number of "adherents"
Bryn Seion	Baptists	119
Bethania	Calvinistic Methodists	160
Bryndaionyn	Calvinistic Methodists	89
Gosen	Calvinistic Methodists	54
Pwllterfyn	Calvinistic Methodists	25
Ebenezer	Wesleyans	150
Nebo	Wesleyans	76

Church Records

Parish Registers

The following Parish Registers have been deposited at the Denbighshire Record Office, Ruthin.
They may be viewed on microfilm at the Denbighshire and Flintshire Record Offices, at Conwy Archive Services, and at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.
These microfilms are not available elsewhere.

Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
1601 - 1872	1601 - 1837	1601 - 1929

Clwyd FHS has published full transcriptions of the registers (complete with indexes) for the following years :

Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
1601 - 1812	1601 - 1812	1601 - 1812

Bishop's Transcripts

Bishop's Transcripts for the years shown below have been deposited in the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.
Around the year 1951, most of the Bishop's Transcripts which had been deposited at that time were microfilmed by the LDS; and the films are available on request at Family History Centres of the LDS.
The films may also be viewed at the Denbighshire and Flintshire Record Offices and at the National Library of Wales.
In general, the Bishop's Transcripts are less complete than the parish registers.

Deposited at the National Library of Wales	Microfilmed copies
1666 - 1850	1670 - 1850

I.G.I.

There are no official I.G.I. entries for St. Martin's, Eglwysbach.

Civil Registration

When Civil Registration was introduced (on 1 July 1837), the parish of Eglwysbach was assigned to the No. 1 ("Llanrwst") sub-district of the Llanrwst Registration District; which was co-extensive with the Llanrwst poor law Union.

In the GRO indexes to civil registration, entries for Eglwysbach are in the format :

Years 1837 - 1851: Llanrwst XXVII.nnn
Years 1851 - 1930: Llanrwst 11b.nnn

(GRO index references have no relevance at the local Superintendent Registrar's Office)

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Population

In 1831- the population was 1460.
In 1901- the population was 1286.
[Royal Commission on the Welsh Church - October 1907]

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Statistics

Archdeacon Thomas gives the area of the parish as 9738 acres.
[ The History of the Diocese of St. Asaph , 1908-1913, Ven. D.R. Thomas]

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Last Updated 23 Nov 2009 - Gareth Hicks