The first mention of the area was in 1126 when the land was granted to Llandaff Cathedral and a chapel was built where Old Church Road now stands.

After much resistance to the Norman conquest of Wales, the area succumbed to the Normans in 1266 who created the manor of Whitchurch which included Llandaff North and Rhiwbina, and who built Castell Coch to protect the approach to Cardiff in Tongwynlais.

Their attempt to produce wine on the slopes below Castell Coch was short-lived, bottling 40 gallons in 1887.

Built in 1749, the Melingriffith Tin Plate Works in north Whitchurch, on the bank of the River Taff opposite Radyr, was built on or near the site of an old corn mill that had operated as far back as the late 12th century.

[4] The tin mills were powered exclusively by water drawn from the River Taff down the Melingriffith feeder stream, a water course that doubled as a canal that carried raw iron ore from the Pentyrch Iron Works until around 1815, when the Pentrych tramroad was completed.

The tin works closed in 1957, and today the only signs that the works ever existed at all are the mostly dry bed of the original Melingriffith feeder stream that still runs down from the River Taff from just above the Radyr weir, and the recently restored water pump standing opposite Oak Cottage.

Where they had come together north of the tin works, any overflow from the canal was originally designed to empty into the feeder.

The feeder reemerges at the Melingriffith Water Pump before flowing into the River Taff.

Ty Mawr Road has replaced the route of the canal from Melingriffith all the way to Whitchurch.

[9] In 2019 a Maggie's Centre, the second in Wales, was opened nearby, offering emotional and social support to those affected by cancer.

[14][15][16] Whitchurch High School has produced three international sporting champions: British Lions rugby captain, Sam Warburton; Champions League winning footballer, Gareth Bale; Tour de France winning cyclist, Geraint Thomas.

The Merthyr Line runs through neighbouring Llandaff North stopping at Llandaf railway station, near Whitchurch.