Llannerch-y-medd, is a small village and

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

on the

Isle of Anglesey Anglesey ( ; ) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms the bulk of the Principal areas of Wales, county known as the Isle of Anglesey, which also includes Holy Island, Anglesey, Holy Island () and some islets and Skerry, sker ...

in North West Wales. It had a population of 1,360,Office for National Statistics : ''Census 2011 : Parish Headcounts : Isle of Anglesey
/ref> of whom more than 70% is Welsh speaking. The village is situated near the centre of Anglesey close to the large water supply

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

, Llyn Alaw, and is believed to have an ancient foundation. ''Llannerch'' means "a woodland clearing". The word ''medd'' in the name is Welsh for

mead Mead (), also called honey wine, and hydromel (particularly when low in alcohol content), is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey mixed with water, and sometimes with added ingredients such as fruits, spices, grains, or hops. The alco ...

, which is made from

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of pl ...

, and the name may be related to the production of honey for mead. The disused Anglesey Central Railway runs through the village. Its station, opened in 1866, was closed in 1964 as part of the Beeching Axe, and its goods yard is now a car park. There is now a cafe and tea rooms housed in a modern extension of the old buildings. Just to the northeast of the village is the hill called Pen y Foel which is 123m above sea level; between 1951 and 1956 this was the site of a VHF Fixer station, part of the RAF Western Sector, and was one of a number similar fixed sites managed by RAF Longley Lane near Preston in Lancashire. The site contained an octagonal wooden hut with a hand-steerable radio mast with two radio receivers of type R1392D, transmitter and telephone line. This hut was protected by a close surrounding octagonal brick wall to provide some bomb blast protection which still exists. The station was used to allow each sector to locate RAF or allied aircraft and to help pilots find airfields in low cloud weather conditions. Also on the hill was a rectangular brick hut (now unroofed) also built by the RAF; this was a simple two-room hut with a rainwater collection tank. The site had three RAF wireless personnel (two were normally on duty) who were billeted with a landlady in Llannerch-y-Medd and attached to nearby RAF Valley. The site closed in around 1956 as the technology was replaced by improved systems. The hill Pen y Foel is also the basis for the name of the local Male Voice Choir Cor Meibion Y Foel which is a member of the National Association of Choirs. It has 43 members and rehearses in the village at Capel Ifan. Over the past decade the Choir has supported local Eisteddfodau, competed in the Anglesey Eisteddfod, raised money for numerous charities and has entertained audiences in concerts, weddings and other functions throughout North Wales. A claim that

Mary, the mother of Jesus Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

, is buried in the village forms the subject of Graham Phillips's ''The Marian Conspiracy''. Mary's traditional burial place is near

Ephesus Ephesus (; ; ; may ultimately derive from ) was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, in present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in the 10th century BC on the site of Apasa, the former Arzawan capital ...

, in present-day

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

Notable people

* Hugh Hughes (1693–1776) a Welsh poet; lived on his estate at Llwydiarth Esgob, near Llanerchymedd,

Governance

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected t ...

exists in the same name. This ward stretches to cover the Community of Tref Alaw with a total population taken at the 2011 census of 1,941.

References

External links

{{Communities of Anglesey