Welsh Blankets
Longest Welsh Town Name
LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH
Longest Welsh Town Name
The longest Welsh town name and the longest Welsh word, is Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. It is a village on Ynys Môn, the island of Anglesey. It is oftern shortened! One of the most common shorted versions is Llanfairpwll Anglesey.
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Longest Welsh Town Name - Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch Pronunciation
A Channel 4 weatherman stunned the TV audience one day when he described the weather in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch perfectly.
Have listen to this (courtesy of Channel 4).
What is the Longest Welsh Town Name?
It is Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch and it is the longest Welsh town name and the longest Welsh word.
Llanfairpwllgwyngyll is a village with a long name on Ynys Môn (Anglesey) in north Wales. Written in full, it has 58 characters but in Welsh it has 51 letters (for example, LL and Ch are one letter in Welsh but two characters). It currently has a population of over 3,000 and is predominately a Welsh speaking part of Wales. It is near to the Britannia Bridge which connects mainland Wales to Ynys Môn, the island of Anglesey.
It is often shorted in speech and in writing (for obvious reasons!) to Llanfairpwllgwyngyll or Llanfair PG. However, in the town itself, the name is often shown in full at, for example the train station and other commercial buildings. Sometimes referred to as the long city name in Wales, it is a village or a town but not a city.
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
Map (sat nav postcode LL61 5UJ)
This postcode should take you to the iconic train station.
History of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
For centuries, Llanfairpwll was a small rural settlement on Ynys Môn. In the sixteenth century there were about 50 inhabitants. By the early nineteenth century, it had grown to about 400 inhabitants in what was becoming to be known as the old town Pentre Uchaf, or Upper Village and the village name became either Llanfairpwll gwyngyllgogerych wyrndrobwll llantysiliogogogoch-isaf (lower town) or
Llanfairpwll gwyngyllgogerych wyrndrobwll llantysiliogogogoch-uchaf (upper town).
The coming of the twentieth century brought major changes following the construction of Thomas Telford's new road in the 1820s and then the arrival of the railway crossing at Britannia Bridge at the beginning of the 1850s. This led to the development of a new part of the village, which became to be be known as Pentre Isaf or Lower Village around the railway station.
It is believed that originally, the village was called Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll. In the second half of the nineteenth century, at the beginning of the 1850’s when a railway was being built between Chester and Holyhead, the village was renamed.
A group of enterprising local people encouraged the railway builders to build a station at Llanfairpwll to encourage travellers to stop at the village to develop commercial trade. It is believed that the name Llanfairpwll was invented around this time by a cobbler from Menai Bridge who had the idea of combining the name of Llanfairpwllgwyngyll with that of neighbouring Llandysiliogogoch to create the longest name in the world. It is very unlikely that he had any idea as to how successful this name change would be as a tourist marketing plan!
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch Meaning
It means, "Saint Mary's Church in the hollow of the white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio of the red cave".
About FelinFach
Located in Pembrokeshire Wales, our ethos is defined in the three words...
NATURAL TRADITIONAL HANDMADE.
- Hand woven iconic Welsh blankets.
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- Hand poured candles, candle accessories, Candle Making Workshops and soapery.
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Last updated 23rd August 2024
