Flintshire

Parishes

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Cilcain

"Cilcain is a very ancient village, lying beneth Moel Fammau, the highest of the Clwydian Hills. ... This village lies in the midst, and commands an extensive range, of most beautiful scenery. The cottages and farmhouses are nearly all whitewashed or coloured, and look exceedingly picturesque."
[From Handy Guide to Mold and the Neighbourhood , Tweddel, 1890]

Cilcain is one of the "ancient parishes" of Flintshire. It originally comprised the seven townships of Cefn, Llan (or Tre'r Llan), Llystynhunydd (or Glust), Llys y Coed, Maes y Groes, Mechlas (or Dolfechlas), and Trellyniau.
On 27 June 1848, the township of Trellyniau and part of the township of Llystynhunydd went to the new parish of Rhesycae.
On 31 March 1865, the remainder of Llystynhunydd, and parts of the townships of Cefn and Mechlas went to the new parish of Rhydymwyn.

Bibliography

• Bevan-Evans, M et al       The excavation of a cairn on Cefn-Goleu near Moel Fammau        Flintshire Historical Society journal, Vol.13  1952/3   Welsh Journals Online   and Second Report Flintshire Historical Society journal, Vol.15  1954/5   Welsh Journals Online
• Cilcain.         [Ruthin] : Clwyd Voluntary Services Council, [1985]
• Cilcain and its parish church.         Chester [Eng., Printed and pub. for the Architectural, Archaeological, and Historic Society for the County and City of Chester, and North Wales] by G. R. Griffith, 1912.
• Edwards, Gwyneth.      Crefftwyr Cilcain         Llafar Gwlad 33 (1991), p. 11-14
• Gruffydd, Eirlys.      Capel Gad, Cilcain      Cilcain : swyddogion ac aelodau Capel Gad, 2006.
• 'Llythyr desgrifiadol Cilcain a'r amgylchoedd' ; gan R. Thos. Williams : am ba rai y derbyniodd yr awdwr y prif wobrau a gynygiesid gan bwyllgorau eisteddfod y lleoedd uchod, Llungwyn 1888 a Nadolig 1890; hefyd, y chwe' phenill buddugol i'r 'Foel Famau' o eiddo'r eisteddfod gyntaf.         Pwllheli : Argraphwyd dros yr awdwr gan Richd. Jones, 1896.
• Roberts, Dewi.     A Cilcain Christmas        Country Quest. December 2006, p. 24
• Simpson, Frank    Cilcain and its parish church: being an address to the Society given in the Town Hall, Mold, May 2nd 1912        Flintshire Historical Society journal, Vol.2  1912   Welsh Journals Online
• Smith, P and P Hayes           Brithdir Mawr, Cilcain: a hall house of 1589          Flintshire Historical Society journal, Vol. 21 1964     Welsh Journals Online

Cemeteries

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Church History

The first recorded mention of the church at Cilcain dates from 1291.

The Clwyd FHS website has a photograph of the church.

Nonconformist Churches "Welsh Church Commission - County of Flint - The Statistics of the Nonconformist Churches for 1905"lists the following nonconformist places of worship in the Civilparish of Cilcain:

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Church Records

Parish Registers

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

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

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 Flintshire and Denbighshire Record Offices, and at the National Library of Wales.
  In general, the Bishop's Transcripts are less complete than the parish registers.

I.G.I.

• The following have been incorporated into the I.G.I., as part of an "official extraction" programme.
  They were extracted from the Bishop's Transcripts, not from the Parish Registers.

Nonconformist Records

• The following nonconformist registers for the Cilcain area are held at the Public Record Office, Kew.
  They may be viewed on microfilm at LDS Family History Centres; and at the Flintshire Record Office, the Denbighshire Record Office and the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.
  Pentre, but not Salem, has been incorporated into the I.G.I., as part of an "official extraction" programme :

• The following nonconformist registers for the Cilcain area are held at the Flintshire Record Office, Hawarden.
  They have not been filmed; and they have not been incorporated into the I.G.I. :

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Civil Registration

In the GRO indexes to civil registration, entries for Cilcain are found under:

• Years 1837 - 1851: Holywell XXVII. nnn
• Years 1852 - 1946: Holywell 11b. nnn

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

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Maps

On Clwyd FHS's site there is a diagram showing parish names/positions with links to pages for the parish church

Kain, R.J.P., Oliver, R.R., Historic Parishes of England and Wales: an Electronic Map of Boundaries before 1850 with a Gazetteer and Metadata [computer file]. Colchester, Essex: History Data Service, UK Data Archive [distributor], 17 May 2001. SN: 4348.   Here is a gazetteer/finding aid plus a set of overview maps to accurately identify the position of parishes within the county

Population

• In 1831- the population was 1189.
• In 1901- the population was 362.
  [ Royal Commission on the Welsh Church - October 1907]

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Statistics

Archdeacon Thomas (1911) gives the area of the parish as 5500 acres.

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Last Updated  3 Oct 2012 - Gareth Hicks