kids encyclopedia robot

Anglesey facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Quick facts for kids
Isle of Anglesey

Ynys Môn
Island and County (as Isle of Anglesey)
View from the Anglesey Coastal Path
View from the Anglesey Coastal Path
Flag of Anglesey.svg
Flag
Arms of Isle of Anglesey County Council
Coat of arms
Isle of Anglesey UK location map.svg
Sovereign State United Kingdom
Constituent Country Wales
County Council Isle of Anglesey
Preserved County Gwynedd
Admin HQ Llangefni
Largest town Holyhead
Government
 • Type Isle of Anglesey County Council
Area
 • Total 276 sq mi (714 km2)
Area rank 9th
Population
 (2015)
 • Total 70,000
 • Rank 20th
 • Density 250/sq mi (98/km2)
 • Density rank 17th
 • Ethnicity
98.1% White
Welsh language
 • Rank 2nd
 • Any skills 70.4%
Geocode 00NA (ONS)
W06000001 (GSS)
ISO 3166 code GB-AGY

Anglesey ( Welsh: [(Ynys) Môn] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms a principal area known as the Isle of Anglesey, that includes Holy Island across the narrow Cymyran Strait and some islets and skerries. Anglesey island, at 260 square miles (673 km2), is the largest in Wales, the seventh largest in Britain, largest in the Irish Sea and second most populous there after the Isle of Man. Isle of Anglesey County Council administers 276 square miles (715 km2), with a 2011 census population of 69,751, including 13,659 on Holy Island. The Menai Strait to the mainland is spanned by the Menai Suspension Bridge, designed by Thomas Telford in 1826, and the Britannia Bridge, built in 1850 and replaced in 1980. The largest town is Holyhead on Holy Island, whose ferry service with Ireland handles over two million passengers a year. The next largest is Llangefni, the county council seat. From 1974 to 1996 Anglesey was part of Gwynedd. Most full-time residents are habitual Welsh speakers. The Welsh name Ynys Môn is used for the UK Parliament and Senedd (Welsh Parliament) constituencies. The postcodes are LL58–LL78. It is also a historic county of Wales.

Name

"Anglesey" is derived from Old Norse, originally either Ǫngullsey "Hook Island" or Ǫnglisey "Ǫngli's Island". No record of any such Ǫngli survives, but the place name was used by Viking raiders as early as the 10th century and was later adopted by the Normans during their invasions of Gwynedd. The traditional folk etymology reading the name as the "Island of the Angles (English)" may account for its Norman use but is without merit, although the Angles' name itself is probably a cognate reference to the shape of the Angeln peninsula. All of these ultimately derive from the proposed Proto-Indo-European root *ank- ("to flex, bend, angle"). It was also formerly spelled as Anglesea.

Ynys Môn, the island's Welsh name, was first recorded as Latin Mona by various Roman sources. It was likewise known to the Saxons as Monez. The Brittonic original was in the past taken to have meant "Island of the Cow". This view is linguistically untenable, however, according to modern scientific philology. The etymology thus currently remains a mystery.

Poetic names for Anglesey include the Old Welsh Ynys Dywyll ("Shady" or "Dark Isle") for its former groves and Ynys y Cedairn ("Isle of the Brave") for its royal courts; Gerald of Wales' Môn Mam Cymru ("Môn, Mother of Wales") for its productivity; and Y fêl Ynys ("Honey Isle").

History

John Speed Anglesey
John Speed's map of Anglesey, 1607

Numerous megalithic monuments and menhirs are present on Anglesey, testifying to the presence of humans in prehistory. Plas Newydd is near one of 28 cromlechs that remain on uplands overlooking the sea. The Welsh Triads claim that Anglesey was once part of the mainland.

Plas Newydd Anglesey House NW view
Plas Newydd

Historically, Anglesey has long been associated with the druids. In AD 60 the Roman general Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, determined to break the power of the druids, attacked the island using his amphibious Batavian contingent as a surprise vanguard assault and then destroying the shrine and the nemetons (sacred groves). News of Boudica's revolt reached him just after his victory, causing him to withdraw his army before consolidating his conquest. The island was finally brought into the Roman Empire by Gnaeus Julius Agricola, the Roman governor of Britain, in AD 78. During the Roman occupation, the area was notable for the mining of copper. The foundations of Caer Gybi as well as a fort at Holyhead are Roman, and the present road from Holyhead to Llanfairpwllgwyngyll was originally a Roman road. The island was grouped by Ptolemy with Ireland ("Hibernia") rather than with Britain ("Albion").

British Iron Age and Roman sites have been excavated and coins and ornaments discovered, especially by the 19th century antiquarian, William Owen Stanley. Following the Roman departure from Britain in the early 5th century, pirates from Ireland colonised Anglesey and the nearby Llŷn Peninsula. In response to this, Cunedda ap Edern, a Gododdin warlord from Scotland, came to the area and began to drive the Irish out. This was continued by his son Einion Yrth ap Cunedda and grandson Cadwallon Lawhir ap Einion; the last Irish invaders were finally defeated in battle in 470. As an island, Anglesey was in a good defensive position, and so Aberffraw became the site of the court, or Llys, of the Kingdom of Gwynedd. Apart from a devastating Danish raid in 853 it remained the capital until the 13th century, when improvements to the English navy made the location indefensible. Anglesey was also briefly the most southern possession of the Norwegian Empire.

After the Irish, the island was invaded by Vikings — some of these raids were noted in famous sagas (see Menai Strait History) — and by Saxons, and Normans, before falling to Edward I of England in the 13th century.

Geography

Brittania Bridge Train crossing 3
Britannia Bridge from the east along the Menai Strait

Anglesey is a relatively low-lying island, with low hills spaced evenly over the north of the island. The highest six are: Holyhead Mountain (220 metres (720 ft)); Mynydd Bodafon (178 metres (584 ft)); Mynydd Llaneilian (177 metres (581 ft)); Mynydd y Garn (170 metres (560 ft)); Bwrdd Arthur (164 metres (538 ft)) and Mynydd Llwydiarth (158 metres (518 ft)). To the south/south-east the island is separated from the Welsh mainland by the Menai Strait, which at its narrowest point is about 250 metres (270 yd) wide. In all other directions the island is surrounded by the Irish Sea. It is the 51st largest island in Europe.

There are several small towns scattered around the island, making it quite evenly populated. The largest towns are Holyhead, Llangefni, Benllech, Menai Bridge, and Amlwch. Beaumaris (Welsh: Biwmares), in the east of the island, features Beaumaris Castle, built by Edward I as part of his Bastide Town campaign in North Wales. Beaumaris is a yachting centre, with many boats moored in the bay or off Gallows Point. The village of Newborough (Welsh: Niwbwrch), in the south, created when the townsfolk of Llanfaes were relocated to make way for the building of Beaumaris Castle, includes the site of Llys Rhosyr, another of the courts of the medieval Welsh princes, which features one of the oldest courtrooms in the United Kingdom. Llangefni is located in the centre of the island and is the island's administrative centre. The town of Menai Bridge (Welsh: Porthaethwy) (in the south-east) expanded when the first bridge to the mainland was being built, in order to accommodate workers and construction. Until then, Porthaethwy had been one of the principal ferry crossing points from the mainland. A short distance from this town lies Bryn Celli Ddu, a Stone Age burial mound. Also nearby is the village with the longest purported place name in the United Kingdom, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. Nearby is Plas Newydd, ancestral home of the Marquesses of Anglesey. The town of Amlwch is situated in the northeast of the island and was once largely industrialised, having grown during the 18th century supporting the copper mining industry at Parys Mountain.

Anglesey OS map
Ordnance Survey map of Anglesey
Anglesey Coast - geograph.org.uk - 1367265
Anglesey coast
Menai Bridge - Anglesey August 2009 (3834581170)
Menai Bridge

Other villages and settlements include Cemaes, Pentraeth, Gaerwen, Dwyran, Bodedern, Malltraeth, and Rhosneigr. The Anglesey Sea Zoo is a local tourist attraction, providing a look at and descriptions of local marine wildlife from common lobsters to congers. All the fish and crustaceans on display are caught around the island and are placed in reconstructions of their natural habitat. They also make salt (evaporated from the local sea water) and breed commercially lobsters, for food, and oysters, for pearls, both from local stocks.

The island's entire rural coastline has been designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and features many sandy beaches, especially along its eastern coast between the towns of Beaumaris and Amlwch and along the western coast from Ynys Llanddwyn through Rhosneigr to the little bays around Carmel Head. The northern coastline has dramatic cliffs interspersed with small bays. The Anglesey Coastal Path is a 200-kilometre (124 mi) path which follows nearly the entire coastline. Tourism is now the most significant economic activity on the island. Agriculture provides the secondary source of income for the island's economy, with the local dairies being amongst the most productive in the region.

Industry and energy

Major industries are restricted to Holyhead (Caergybi) which, until 30 September 2009, supported an aluminium smelter, and the Amlwch area, once a major copper mining town. Nearby is the Wylfa Nuclear Power Station and a former bromine extraction plant. In 1971 the Wylfa reactors began producing electricity. With one reactor decommissioned in 2012 and the other expected to end production in 2015, the site is a strong possibility for a replacement reactor, planned by Horizon, a subsidiary of Hitachi, to start production in the 2020s. The replacement has been enthusiastically endorsed by Anglesey Council and Welsh Assembly members, but protestors have raised doubts about the economic and safety claims made for the plant. Anglesey also has 3 windfarms on land, and more than 20 offshore wind turbines established near the north coast. There are plans for the world's first Tidal Flow turbines, near The Skerries, off the north coast, and for a major biomass plant on Holy Island (Ynys Gybi). Developing such low carbon energy assets to their full potential forms part of the Anglesey Energy Island project.

When the aluminium smelting operation closed down in September 2009, it reduced its workforce from 450 to 80; this has been a major blow to the Island's economy, especially to the town of Holyhead. The Royal Air Force station RAF Valley (Y Fali) is home to the RAF Fast Jet Training School and also 22 Sqn Search and Rescue Helicopters, both units providing employment for approximately 500 civilians. RAF Valley is now home to the Headquarters of 22 Sqn Search and Rescue.

There is a wide range of smaller industries, mostly located in industrial and business parks especially at Llangefni and Gaerwen. These industries include an abattoir and fine chemical manufacture as well as factories for timber production, aluminium smelting, fish farming and food processing. The island is also on one of the major routes from Britain to Ireland, via ferries from Holyhead, off the west of Anglesey on Holy Island, to Dún Laoghaire and Dublin Port.

Rivers, lakes and climate

There are a few natural lakes, mostly in the west, such as Llyn Llywenan, the largest natural lake on the island, Llyn Coron, and Cors Cerrig y Daran, but rivers are few and small. There are two large water supply reservoirs operated by Welsh Water. These are Llyn Alaw to the north of the island and Llyn Cefni in the centre of the island, which is fed by the headwaters of the afon Cefni.

The climate is humid (though much less so than neighbouring mountainous Gwynedd) and generally equable, being influenced by the Gulf Stream. The land is of variable quality and it was probably much more fertile in the past. Anglesey is the home of the northernmost olive grove in Europe and presumably in the world.

See the list of places in Anglesey for all villages, towns and cities.
See the List of Anglesey towns by population for populations.

Ecology and conservation

Much of Anglesey is used for relatively intensive cattle and sheep farming. However, there are a number of important wetland sites which have protected status. In addition the several lakes all have significant ecological interest, including their support for a wide range of aquatic and semi-aquatic bird species. In the west, the Malltraeth Marshes are believed to support an occasional visiting bittern, and the nearby estuary of the Afon Cefni supports a bird population made internationally famous by the paintings of Charles Tunnicliffe, who lived for many years – and died – at Malltraeth on the Cefni estuary. The RAF airstrip at Mona is a nesting site for skylarks. The sheer cliff faces at South Stack near Holyhead provide nesting sites for huge numbers of auks including puffins, razorbills and guillemots together with choughs and peregrine falcons. Three sites on Anglesey are important for breeding terns – see Anglesey tern colonies. There are significant occurrences of the Juncus subnodulosus-Cirsium palustre fen-meadow plant association, a habitat characterised by certain hydrophilic grasses, sedges and forbs. Anglesey is home to several species of tern, including the roseate tern.

Anglesey is home to two of the UK's few remaining colonies of red squirrels, at Pentraeth and Newborough.

Almost the entire coastline of Anglesey is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) to protect the aesthetic appeal and variety of the island's coastal landscape and habitats from inappropriate development. The coastal zone of Anglesey was designated as an AONB in 1966 and was confirmed as such in 1967.

The AONB is predominantly a coastal designation, covering most of Anglesey's 125 miles (201 km) coastline but also encompasses Holyhead Mountain and Mynydd Bodafon. Substantial areas of other land protected by the AONB form the backdrop to the coast. The AONB is about 221 km2 (85 sq mi) and it is the largest AONB in Wales, covering one third of the island.

A number of the habitats in Anglesey are afforded even greater protection through both UK and European designations because of their nature conservation value: these include:

6 candidate Special Areas of Conservation (cSACs) 4 Special Protection Areas (SPAs) 1 National Nature Reserve 26 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) 52 Scheduled Ancient Monuments (SAMs)

These protected habitats support a variety of wildlife such as harbour porpoises and marsh fritillary.

The AONB also takes in three sections of open, undeveloped coastline which have been designated as Heritage Coast. These non-statutory designations complement the AONB and cover about 31 miles (50 km) of the coastline. The sections of Heritage Coast are:

  1. North Anglesey 28.6 km (17.8 mi)
  2. Holyhead Mountain 12.9 km (8.0 mi)
  3. Aberffraw Bay 7.7 km (4.8 mi)

A living and working landscape

Employment on Anglesey is mainly based on agriculture and tourism. In a number of instances the local produce is also organic.

The most popular forms of recreation include sailing, angling, cycling, walking, wind surfing and jet skiing. These all place pressures and demands on the AONB; but these activities contribute to the local economy.

Ynys Llanddwyn old light.pg
Ynys Llanddwyn, old lighthouse with Snowdonia in background.

Culture

  • Anglesey hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1957, 1983, and 1999.
  • The island is a member of the International Island Games Association. Its most successful Games were the 1997 Island Games held on Jersey, (11th in the medals table, with two gold, three silver and nine bronze medals) and the 2005 Island Games on the Shetland Islands, (again 11th, with 4 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze).
  • The annual Anglesey Show is held on the second Tuesday and Wednesday of August: farmers from around the country compete in livestock rearing contests including sheep and cattle.
  • Anglesey has featured in the Channel 4 archaeological television programme Time Team (series 14) – episode transmission date 4 February 2007.
  • Anglesey is home to Gottwood, an electronic music and arts festival held each summer at the Carreglwyd estate.

Welsh language

Anglesey has historically been a stronghold of the Welsh language, and according to the 2011 census it was the second most Welsh-speaking local authority area in Wales. The historical proportions of residents who could speak Welsh are as follows:

  • 1901: 90.7%
  • 1911: 88.7%
  • 1921: 87.8%
  • 1931: 87.4%
  • 1951: 80%
  • 1961: 75%
  • 1971: 66%
  • 1981: 61%
  • 1991: 62%
  • 2001: 60%
  • 2011: 57%

Today, Welsh is less widely used on the island than earlier in the last century, but it is still the dominant language in certain areas of the island, particularly in the centre, including the town of Llangefni and some areas of the south coast: a notable example is the village of Llanfairpwll. The island's five secondary schools vary drastically with regard to the percentage of their pupils who come from predominantly Welsh-speaking homes, as does the percentage of pupils who can speak Welsh:

  • Ysgol David Hughes (located in Menai Bridge): 33% come from Welsh-speaking homes while 90% 'can speak Welsh'.
  • Ysgol Gyfun Llangefni (located in Llangefni): 68% of pupils speak Welsh as their first language while 87% of pupils take their exams through the medium of Welsh.
  • Ysgol Syr Thomas Jones (located in Amlwch): 34% of all pupils come from Welsh-speaking homes while 82% sit the Welsh First Language General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE)
  • Ysgol Uwchradd Bodedern (located in Bodedern): 67% of all pupils come from Welsh-speaking homes while 'a majority' speak Welsh as fluently.
  • Ysgol Uwchradd Caergybi (located in Holyhead): 14% of pupils speak Welsh at home while 11% of pupils are taught the 'Welsh First Language' curriculum.

Geology

The geology of Anglesey is notably complex and is frequently used for geology field trips by schools and colleges. Younger strata in Anglesey rest upon a foundation of very old Precambrian rocks that appear at the surface in four areas:

  1. a western region including Holyhead and Llanfaethlu
  2. a central area about Aberffraw and Trefdraeth
  3. an eastern region which includes Newborough, Gaerwen and Pentraeth
  4. a coastal region at Glyn Garth between Menai Bridge and Beaumaris

These Precambrian rocks are schists and phyllites, often much contorted and disturbed. The general line of strike of the formations in the island is from north-east to south-west.

Under the name GeoMôn, and in recognition of its extraordinary geological heritage, the island gained membership of the European Geoparks Network in spring 2009. and the Global Geoparks Network in September 2010.

Other places of interest

South Stack Lighthouse Anglesey
South Stack lighthouse
  • Rhosneigr, for its beach, boat launch and surfing facilities.
  • The Skerries Lighthouse which can be found at the end of a low piece of submerged land, north-east of Holyhead
  • The working windmill at Llanddeusant
  • Ynys LlanddwynLovers' island
  • The sea zoo near Dwyran
  • The church in the sea on Cribinau
  • The Anglesey Motor Racing Circuit
  • Stone Science, near Pentraeth – a journey through 650 million years.
  • King Arthur's seat near Beaumaris
  • Penmon Priory and dovecote
  • The town and castle of Beaumaris
  • Red Wharf Bay, Benllech, Llanddona and many other beaches
  • Cemlyn Bay for its ternary
  • Elin's Tower (Twr Elin) RSPB reserve and the lighthouse at South Stack (Ynys Lawd) near Holyhead
  • Moelfre, the fishing village
  • Malltraeth, noted centre for bird life and home of wildlife artist Charles Tunnicliffe
  • Swtan longhouse, owned by the National Trust and managed by the local community of Porth Swtan

Transport

Anglesey is linked to the mainland by the Britannia Bridge, carrying the A55 from Holyhead, and the Menai Suspension Bridge, carrying the A5 trunk road. The A5025 round the northern edge of Anglesey and the A4080 round the southern edge form a ring.

The six railway stations are Holyhead, Valley, Rhosneigr, Ty Croes, Bodorgan and Llanfairpwll. All are on the North Wales Coast Line, with services operated by Avanti West Coast to London Euston, and by Transport for Wales Rail to Chester, Manchester Piccadilly, Birmingham New Street and Cardiff Central. Historically the island was also served by the Anglesey Central Railway which ran from Gaerwen to Amlwch, and the Red Wharf Bay branch line between Holland Arms railway station and Red Wharf Bay.

By air, Anglesey Airport has a twice-daily scheduled service to Cardiff Airport, where connections worldwide can be made.

The ferry port of Holyhead handles over two million passengers a year. Stena Line and Irish Ferries sail to Dublin (previously to Dún Laoghaire), forming the main surface transport link from central and northern England and Wales to Ireland.

Sport and leisure

Anglesey is independently represented in the Island Games (as Ynys Môn). The team finished joint 17th in the 2009 Games hosted by Åland, winning medals in gymnastics, sailing, and shooting.

Anglesey made an unsuccessful bid for the 2009 games, led by Ynys Môn MP Albert Owen, in the hope of more than £3m of spending if it had hosted the event. However, Anglesey lacks two needful facilities: a six-lane competition swimming pool and an athletics track.

Several precursors to the modern football codes were popular in Anglesey. They had few rules and were quite violent. Rhys Cox at the turn of the 18th century described a game in Llandrygan ending with "numbers of players... left here and there on the road, some having limbs broken in the struggle, others severely injured, and some carried on biers to be buried in the churchyard nearest to where they had been mortally injured." William Bulkeley, in his April 1734 diary, records that the violence of such games left no hard feelings, with both sides parting "as good friends as they came, after they had spent half an hour together cherishing their spirits with a cup of ale... having finished Easter Holydays innocently and merrily."

Association football

This arrived in the 1870s and met with local resistance for its perceived associations with drunkenness and rowdiness and the lower classes. One critic called it an "un-Christian practice". An Anglesey League of teams from Amlwch, Beaumaris, Holyhead, Menai Bridge, Llandegfan, and Llangefni was formed in the 1895–96 season. This gave way in 2020 to the North Wales Coast West Football League.

The Ynys Môn football team represents Anglesey at the biannual Island Games, winning gold in 1999. In 2018, the island was chosen to host the 2019 Inter Games Football Tournament, where the men's team won gold and the women's team won silver.

For the aborted 2020–21 season, Llangefni Town and Holyhead Hotspur were due to play in the Cymru North league, the second tier of the Welsh football league system, after winning the Welsh Alliance League two years before. There were due to be nine Anglesey sides in the same season's fourth tier North Wales Coast West Football League Premier Division: Aberffraw, Amlwch Town, Bodedern Athletic, Bro Goronwy, Gaerwen, Gwalchmai, Menai Bridge Tigers, Pentraeth and Trearddur Bay Bulls. There are a further nine teams in Division One.

Rugby Union

Llangefni RFC is the island's highest competing team in the WRU Division One North. Llangoed hosts an annual rugby sevens contest. Touring sides have included Manhattan RFC.

Anglesey Hunt

Anglesey Hunt, formed in 1757, was the second oldest fox hunting association in Wales after Tivyside Hunt in Cardiganshire.

Athletics

Every September the Anglesey Festival of Running includes a marathon, a half-marathon, 10-km and 5–km races, and children's contests. Its slogan is Run the Island. There are at present no 400-metre, all-weather, synthetic tracks on the island, the nearest being between Bangor and the Britannia Bridge on the mainland.

Motorsport

The Anglesey Circuit (Welsh: Trac Môn) is a licensed MSA and ACU championship racing circuit that opened in 1997. It hosts many events all year round and is a popular track.

Cricket

The Beaumaris Cricket Club formed in 1858. Clubs at Holyhead, Amlwch and Llangefni formed in the following decade, but not until the 1880s was the sport popular outside the upper classes. Bodedern Cricket Club was formed in 1947.

Sailing

The Royal Anglesey Yacht Club hosts the annual Menai Strait Regatta.

Swimming

The Menai Strait hosts two annual open-water contests: the Menai Strait Swim from Foel to Caernarfon (1 mile), and the Pier to Pier Open Water Swim, between Beaumaris and Garth Pier, Bangor. There is a 25-metre pool at Plas Arthur Leisure Centre in Llangefni.

Economy

Tourism is now the major economic activity. Agriculture comes second, with local dairies being some of the most productive in the region.

Major industry is restricted to Holyhead (Caergybi), which until 30 September 2009 supported an aluminium smelter, and the Amlwch area, once a copper mining town. Nearby stood Wylfa Nuclear Power Station and a former bromine extraction plant. With construction starting in 1963, the two Wylfa reactors began producing power in 1971. One reactor was decommissioned in 2012, the other in 2015.

Anglesey has three wind farms on land. There were plans to install tidal-flow turbines near The Skerries off the north coast, and for a major biomass plant on Holy Island (Ynys Gybi). Developing such low-carbon-energy assets to their full potential forms part of the Anglesey Energy Island project.

When the aluminium smelter closed in September 2009, it cut its workforce from 450 to 80, in a major blow to the island's economy, especially to Holyhead. The Royal Air Force station RAF Valley (Y Fali) holds the RAF Fast Jet Training School and 22 Sqn Search and Rescue Helicopters, both units providing employment to about 500 civilians. RAF Valley is now the 22 Sqn Search and Rescue headquarters.

The range of smaller industries is mostly in industrial and business parks such as Llangefni and Gaerwen, notably an abattoir, fine chemical manufacturing, and factories for timber production, aluminium smelting, fish farming and food processing. The island is on one of the main road routes from Britain to Ireland, via ferries from Holyhead on Holy Island to Dún Laoghaire and Dublin Port.

Abandoned nuclear plan

Plans were offered in 2013 by Horizon, a subsidiary of Hitachi, to start production in the 2020s. Though enthusiastically endorsed by Anglesey Council and Welsh Assembly members, protesters raised doubts about its economic and safety claims, and in January 2019 Hitachi announced it was putting development on hold.

On 17 January 2019, Hitachi-Horizon Nuclear Power announced it was abandoning plans to build a nuclear plant on the Wylfa Newydd site in Anglesey. There had been concern that the start might have involved too much public expenditure, but Hitachi-Horizon say the decision to scrap has cost the company over £2 billion.

Notable people

Born in Anglesey

  • Tony Adams – actor (Anglesey, 1940)
  • Stu Allan – radio and club DJ
  • John C. Clarke – U.S. state politician (Anglesey, 1831)
  • Grace Coddington – creative director for US Vogue (Anglesey, 1941
  • Charles Allen Duval – artist and writer (Beaumaris, 1810)
  • Dawn French – actress, writer, comedian (Holyhead, 1957)
  • Huw Garmon – actor (Anglesey, 1966)
  • Hugh Griffith – Oscar-winning actor (Marianglas, 1912)
  • Elen Gwdman – poet (fl. 1609)
  • Meinir Gwilym – singer and songwriter (Llangristiolus, 1983)
  • Owain Gwynedd – royal prince (Anglesey, c. 1100)
  • Hywel Gwynfryn – radio and TV personality (Llangefni, 1942)
  • Aled Jones – singer and television presenter (Llandegfan, 1970)
  • John Jones – amateur astronomer (Bryngwyn Bach, Dwyran 1818 – Bangor 1898); a.k.a. Ioan Bryngwyn Bach and Y Seryddwr
  • William Jones – mathematician (Llanfihangel Tre'r Beirdd, 1675)
  • Julian Lewis Jones – actor, known for his portrayal of Karl Morris on the Sky 1 comedy Stella (Anglesey, 1968)
  • John Morris-Jones – grammarian and poet (Llandrygarn, 1864)
  • Edward Owen – 18th-century artist, notable for letters documenting life in London's art scene
  • Goronwy Owen – 18th-century poet (Llanfair-Mathafarn-Eithaf, 1723)
  • Osian Roberts – association football player and manager (Bodffordd)
  • Tecwyn Roberts – NASA aerospace engineer and Director of Networks at Goddard Space Flight Center (Llanddaniel Fab, 1925)
  • Hugh Owen Thomas – pioneering orthopaedic surgeon (Anglesey, 1836)
  • – operatic tenor, photographer and artist (Red Wharf Bay, 1892)
  • Sefnyn – medieval court poet
  • Owen Tudor – grandfather of Henry Tudor, married the widow of Henry V, which gave the Tudor dynasty a claim on the English throne (Anglesey, c.1400).
  • Kyffin Williams RA – landscape painter (Llangefni, 1918)
  • William Williams (VC) – recipient of the Victoria Cross (Amlwch, 1890)
  • Andy Whitfield – actor (Amlwch, 1971)
  • Gareth Williams – employee of Britain's GCHQ signals intelligence agency (Anglesey, 1978)

Lived in Anglesey

Images for kids

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Anglesey para niños

kids search engine
Anglesey Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.