Town in Anglesey, Wales
Llanfairpwll
A village that gave itself the longest name in Britain to lure in railway passengers, and it worked so well that people still queue to photograph the station sign.
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Key information
- County
- Anglesey
- Nation
- Wales
- Known for
- Having the longest place name in Britain, and the first Women's Institute
- Famous people
- Henry Paget (1st Marquess of Anglesey), Madge Watt
- Football clubs
- Llanfairpwll FC
About Llanfairpwll
The name that was built to be photographed
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch has 58 characters in English spelling, which make up 51 Welsh letters, because its five "ll" pairs and two "ch" pairs each count as a single letter. It is the longest place name in Britain, and it was not handed down from the Middle Ages. It is generally said to have been stretched out in the 1860s, when the railway had arrived and the village was looking for a way to stand out. The plan was simple: give visitors something to talk about. Over 150 years later, nobody has come up with a better advertisement. Locals rarely bother with the whole thing. Llanfairpwll is the everyday name, and Llanfair PG is the friendly shorthand you will see on road signs and in conversation.
What the tongue-twister actually says
The name is really a map in words. It runs roughly: "St Mary's church in the hollow of the white hazel near the fierce whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio by the red cave." So the long version describes the setting beside the Menai Strait, with its tidal swirls, and names two churches. Before the nineteenth-century extension, the village was called Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, meaning roughly "St Mary's church in the hollow of the white hazel". Llanfairpwll is a shortened form of that. The station sign is the thing that people queue to photograph. It gives the full name in one unbroken line, and the station is one of the most photographed in Britain.
A railway, two bridges and a mission
Llanfairpwll owes its modern fame to transport. Thomas Telford's Menai Suspension Bridge opened in 1826 and carried the Holyhead road across the strait. Robert Stephenson's Britannia Bridge followed in 1850, carrying the railway. The line to Holyhead made this stretch of Anglesey a gateway for travellers heading for the Irish ferries. That is the context for the name. A station that sees plenty of passengers pass through is a good place to give them something to remember, and Llanfairpwll never stopped working at it. Shops and visitors still cluster around the station today.
The column with a one-legged hero
Above the village stands the Marquess of Anglesey's Column, built in 1816-17 to honour Henry Paget. He commanded the cavalry at Waterloo and lost a leg to a cannonball there. He was made Marquess of Anglesey for his service, and the column was put up as a tribute. It stands 27 metres tall, and visitors can climb the steps inside for a view over the Menai Strait to Snowdonia. On a clear day it is one of the best outlooks on the island. The statue of Paget on top was added later.
Where the Women's Institute began in Britain
For all the fuss about the name, Llanfairpwll has a second claim that matters more. The first Women's Institute in Britain was founded here in 1915. The idea came from Canada and was championed in Britain by Madge Watt, who had helped build the movement there. The aim was to bring rural women together to produce food and share skills, at a time when wartime Britain badly needed both. The movement spread quickly and became a national institution, famous for jam, Jerusalem and campaigning. It is a rather neat double: the village with Britain's longest place name is also the birthplace of one of Britain's best-known women's organisations.