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The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland - 1868


National Gazetteer (1868)

"LLANERCHYMEDD, VILL, a parochial chapelry and small market town in the hundred of Menai, in county Anglesey, North Wales, 13 miles N.W. of Beaumaris, and 15 N.E. of Holyhead. Bangor is its post town. The Gaerwen station on the Chester and Holyhead railway is about 8 miles from the village. It is situated within about 6 miles distance from the Irish Sea, and the main road from the Menai Bridge to Amlwch passes through the town, which consists of two main streets crossing each other at right angles. The principal trade is in the manufacture of snuff, for which it is somewhat famous, and in connection with the numerous cattle fairs. Rope making and hide curing afford some employment. Petty sessions are held monthly.

The living is a perpetual curacy* in the diocese of Bangor, in the patronage of the bishop. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, has been recently restored, and has a heavy embattled tower. The Independents, Baptists, and Calvinistic Methodists have chapels. There is a National school. Wednesday is market day. Fairs are held on 1st January, 10th March, 4th April, 6th May, 23rd June, 14th August, 2nd October, and 13th November, for the sale of cattle, &c., and on the Wednesday following the last named, one for the hiring of servants."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]


A Topographical Dictionary of Wales
Samuel Lewis, 1833

LLANERCHYMEDD, a market town and chapelry, chiefly in the parish of AMLWCH, but partly in those of LLANBEULAN, LLECHCYNVARWYDD, and CEIDIO, in the hundreds of LLYVON, MENAI, and TWRCELYN, county of ANGLESEY, NORTH WALES, 14 miles (W. N.W.) from Beaumaris, and 263 (N. W. by W.) from London. The population is returned with the respective parishes. This town, of which two-thirds are situated within the parish of Amlwch, is, in respect of population, the second in the Isle of Anglesey, and appears to have derived its progressive increase in extent and importance from its central situation. Previously to the commencement of the parliamentary war, it had become a very populous village, and as such it is set forth in a petition which, during the protectorate of Cromwell, was presented for the establishment of a market, which was granted in 1657, and confirmed by Charles II, in 1665. This market, with the exception of that of Beaumaris, was the only one in the whole island, and constituted a chief source of the prosperity of the town until the year 1785, when a market was granted to Llangevni, the still more central situation of which renders it more convenient for the general resort of the inhabitants of the island. Llanerchymedd is pleasantly situated on the high road from Bangor to Amlwch. The making of shoes is carried on to a very considerable extent, affording employment to more than two hundred and fifty men ; and the manufacture of a high dried Welsh snuff, closely resembling in its quality the celebrated Irish snuff, commonly called Lundy Foote's, for which it has partially become a substitute, has recently been established upon an extensive scale : the business, however, is not conducted upon a plan calculated to ensure to the inventors all the advantages of which, under better management, it might be made productive. The market, which is well attended, is on Wednesday ; and five annual fairs are held under the same letters patent by which the market was granted, but the days are not fixed with certainty, being frequently changed to suit the convenience of the dealers, who are thus enabled to drive the cattle to the English fairs : the nominal days are, January 1st, March 10th, April 4th, May 6th, June 23rd, the three Wednesdays before August 7th, and the 14th of that month, October 2nd, November 13th, and the three first Wednesdays after the last-mentioned day. The vill of Llanerchymedd, forming that portion of the town which is in the parish of Llanbeulan, now deemed extra-parochial, and containing fifty-seven inhabitants, maintains its own poor, but has neither churchwardens nor any other parish officers, the whole consisting only of six acres of glebe land, which, together with the houses built on them, belong to the rector : the rest of the parish is eight miles distant, being separated from this detached portion by no fewer than five intervening parishes. The poor of the other parts of the town are maintained with those of the several parishes in which they are respectively situated. The living is a curacy, annexed to the rectory of Llanbeulan, in the archdeaconry of Anglesey, and diocese of Bangor. The chapel, dedicated to St. Mary, is a spacious structure, with a lofty square tower at the western end, and is the joint property of the families of Lluidiarth and Bodelwyddan, who have always kept it in repair without any charge to the inhabitants of the town. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, and Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists. A National school, capable of receiving about a hundred and sixty children, and in which fifty-four boys and sixty girls are gratuitously instructed, was built in 1824, and is liberally supported by subscription. Children of the adjoining parishes of Coedanna and Ceidio are eligible to this school.

 

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