According to local historian Harry Gillard, there were three different buildings on the present site. Very little is known of the first church except that it was small with a thatched roof. It was dated at around 1500. It was almost 200 years before a second church was built at Nantenan. As a young boy, Harry recalls older people saying that it was destroyed by fire. Part of its foundation wall can still be seen. The present church was built early in the 1800s. A tablet on the wall in the porch reads entre into the courts of the Lord ano domne 1821.
Some of the original Palatines are buried in Nantenan, so also are a large number of Roman Catholics. Nantenan church closed its doors for the last time in 1972.
Arthur Gilliard and his wife Lily were the last couple to be married in Nantenan church and their daughter was the last baby to be baptised there.
A group of local people, who regularly tended graves of relatives in Nantenan, decided to set up a maintenance committee in April 2011. The core committee was Arthur and John Gilliard, Jimmy and Breda Condon and Mike Bourke. They met on Monday evenings over the past few years where they were joined by different volunteers along the way. The result is a magnificently kept ground and is a credit to all concerned.
Money was provided for the erection of the new entrance in 2015 by the family of Niall Enright of Ballyengland who was buried there in that year.
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