£5.95 (plus £1 postage within UK)
Of all the ships wrecked during the great storm of October 1859, the loss of the steam clipper Royal Charter off the little Anglesey village of Moelfre was the most disastrous. More than four hundred men, women and children—returning home from the goldfields of Australia—were drowned and dashed against the rocks.
The novelist Charles Dickens, then at the height of his fame, visited Anglesey to report the aftermath of the tragedy. ‘The Shipwreck’ was first published in Dickens’s magazine All the Year Round, and later collected in his book The Uncommercial Traveller. The moving text is reproduced in full, together with a new introduction and many illustrations, including a facsimile of a letter written to his host in Anglesey, Stephen Roose Hughes, Rector of Llanallgo parish church where many of the shipwreck victims were buried.
The impact of the ‘Royal Charter Storm’ went far beyond the victims and their relatives, leading to the introduction of the first storm warnings, weather forecasting and other measures to improve the safety of ships, their crews and their passengers. The book’s brief afterword covers these developments.
“The book is full of fascinating information and is attractively illustrated. A considerable amount of new material is included, the accounts from contemporary newspapers being a particularly nice addition. The cover picture, taken from the Illustrated London News of 5th November, 1859, is really striking, and I was also impressed by the reproduction of Joseph Josiah Dodd’s 1872 painting, ‘The Royal Charter at Low Water’ as a two-page spread. It is evident that considerable thought has been given to the design and contents of the revised edition, and Llyfrau Magma can be proud of their achievement.”
— from a review in the ‘Transactions’ of the Anglesey Antiquarian Society & Field Club.
Page size 175mm wide x 235mm high; 24 pages plus an extended eight-page cover.
Prehistoric AngleseyThe archaeology of the island to the Roman conquest
—by Frances Lynch. Hardcover, 412 pages
Anglesey Antiquarian Society 1991, ISBN 0 9500199-7-6
£17 (plus £4 postage within UK)
South StackAnglesey’s famous lighthouse
—by Ian Jones. Softcover, 84 pages. Oriel Ynys Môn, 2009.
£9.95 (plus £1.15 postage within UK)
During the early years of the nineteenth century the Board of Trinity House responded to concern about the dangers of the approach to the old harbour at Holyhead by authorising the building of a lighthouse on South Stack. The difficult task was undertaken by competent and efficient local contractors working to the designs of the Board's surveyor, Daniel Alexander. The work was carried out during the autumn and winter of 1808, and the light was first officially displayed on 9th February 1809, a mere nine months after work began.
This book, which includes many illustrations and contributions from specialists in their fields, chronicles that achievement and records the subsequent two hundred year story of the lighthouse and its keepers.
The Place-Names of Anglesey— by Gwilym T Jones & Tomos Roberts
Anglesey County Council / Research Centre Wales, 1996
Hardcover, 192 pages. Bilingual. ISBN 0-904567-71-0
£15 (including postage within UK)Villages and towns, lakes and wells
— derivation and meanings of almost all the island’s place-names.
Pocket Images: Anglesey—by Mike Hitches. Softcover, 160 pages
£5.99 (post free within UK)
A little pocketbook packed with many archival images of the island, mostly from the Victorian and Edwardian periods, accompanied by detailed captions and (though risible in places) an introductory text.
Portraits of an Island: Eighteenth Century Anglesey—by Helen Ramage. Paperback, 288 pages
Anglesey Antiquarian Society 2001, ISBN 0 9500199-8-4
£12.95 (plus £3 postage within UK)
The cottages of the poor and the mansions of the rich with their walled gardens and serpentine walks, and the pleasures of a laden table and the eating of traditional peasant food are described. Recreations such as hunting, cock fighting and the merrymaking festivals contrast with the harsh punishments meted out to wrongdoers. Illnesses and epidemics, with the accompanying medical remedies – often horrendous – and the high mortality rate, makes sad reading. The schooling of both boys and girls, the growing religious divisions and the improvements in farming during the century are portrayed by the inhabitants themselves.
Whispering Reeds‘The Anglesey Catamanus Inscription Stript Bare’
—by Charles Thomas
Paperback, 120 pages. Oxbow 2002, ISBN 978-1-84-217085-4
£10 POST FREE WITHIN UK
Llangadwaladr, an attractive little village, lies just to the west of Bodorgan on the island of Anglesey, North Wales. Its sandstone parish Church of St Cadwaladr, one of Anglesey's Grade 1 protected churches, is an architectural gem. The nave may date back to the late twelfth century, the chancel to the fourteenth. The church is associated with the early medieval 'llys' (the court) at Aberffraw. It is probably dedicated to Cadwaladr 'the Blessed', a king of Gwynedd who died in AD664 after a peaceful reign. The Tudor dynasty claimed descent from this ruler; Henry VII maintained that his red dragon standard was the ancient flag of Cadwaladr.Cadwaladr's grandfather was named Cadfan: a stone set into the north wall of the church dates from about AD625. It records in Latin that 'Catamanus' (Cadfan) was the 'wisest and most renowned of all kings'. Charles Thomas, Director of the Institute of Cornish Studies, investigates the inscription as an early medieval detective story in Whispering Reeds. This light-hearted but fascinating piece of Celtic scholarship arrives at some irreverent conclusions: was Cadfan really a sex-crazed provincial ass? Who knows, but there is little doubt that this gravestone is of great historical significance!
[This is a condensed extract from the LLANGADWALADR entry in Môn Mam Cymru: the Guide to Anglesey by Philip Steele & Robert Williams]
The Mabinogion—the great medieval Celtic tales, in a translation by Sioned Davies
Hardcover, 294 pages. Oxford University Press 2007, ISBN 978-0-19-283242-9
£12.99 POST FREE WITHIN UK
Celtic mythology, Arthurian romance and an intriguing interpretation of British history are some of the themes embraced by the anonymous authors of the eleven tales that make up the Welsh medieval masterpiece known as the ‘Mabinogion’. They tell of Gwydion the shape-shifter, who can create a woman out of flowers; of Math the magician whose feet must lie in the lap of a virgin; of hanging a pregnant mouse and hunting a magical boar. Dragons, witches and giants live alongside kings and heroes, and quests of honour, revenge and love are set against a backdrop of a country struggling to retain its independence.
The book’s main references to the island of Môn include the story of Branwen, heroine of the Mabinogion. Branwen returns to Anglesey after her disastrous marriage to Matholwch, King of Ireland, and dies of a broken heart on the banks of the river Alaw, where she is said to have been buried. (The site, known today as Bedd Branwen—‘Branwen’s grave’—is actually far older, for it is a round barrow from the middle of the second millennium BC. The central stone is even more ancient than that. Excavations revealed cremated bodies, jewellery of jet and amber as well as pottery, now in the Gwynedd Museum in Bangor. The burial chamber’s mound, together with most of the stones, was dismantled by farmers in 1813.)
“They came ashore at Aber Alaw in Talebolion. And then they sat down and rested. She looked at Ireland and at the Island of the Mighty, what she could see of them. ‘Oh son of God,’ she said, ‘woe that I was ever born. Two good islands have been laid waste because of me!’ She gives a mighty sigh, and with that her heart breaks. And they make a four-sided grave for her and bury her there on the banks of the Alaw.”
AngleseyA Guide to the Ancient Monuments on the Isle of Anglesey
—by M J Yates & David Longley. Paperback, 48 pages
CADW: Welsh Historic Monuments, ISBN 978-1857601428
£2.95 (plus £1 postage within UK)
(Cadw: Welsh Historic Monuments, is the department of the National Assembly of Wales that conserves ancient monuments and historic buildings in public ownership.)
The Life and Death of a Druid PrinceThe story of an archaeological sensation
—by Anne Ross & Don Robins. Hardcover, 176 pages
Century Hutchinson / Guild Publishing / Rider & Co, 1989, ISBN 978-0712625111
(Although used, these books are in good condition, complete with their dustjackets)
USED £14 (post free within UK)
It seems possible that Llyn Cerrig Bach (the ‘lake of small stones’) was a holy site of the druids from the third century BC through to the Roman invasion of AD60. Warriors – perhaps from all over Britain, though it is also possible that the equipment could have been in use locally – may have hurled their weapons and finery into the lake as votive offerings to a god or goddess.
In this fascinating book a theory is put forward that the offerings mark the catastrophic arrival of the Roman invaders. The authors link the story of the lake with that of ‘Lindow Man’, a figure discovered in a peat cutting near Wilmslow (Cheshire) in 1984. They believe that this body was that of a druid, and that druids on Anglesey controlled the trade in Irish gold. This may seem to be a fanciful tale, but the authors are serious scholars: Dr Anne Ross, author of the classic ‘Pagan Celtic Britain’ (Routledge & Kegan Paul, revised 1992), and Dr Don Robins, an archaeological chemist.
Anglesey: Past Landscapes of the CoastPhotographs by Mick Sharp & Jean Williamson, and with text by Frances Lynch
£19.95 (plus £2.75 postage within UK)
The dramatic coastal landscapes of the island are documented in this excellent pictorial record of the history of Anglesey's coast, from prehistoric times to the present day.
The fact that Anglesey is an island has been crucial to its history – its coastal fringe has been the scene of prehistoric fishing and oyster catching, Neolithic tombs and Bronze Age round barrows, Roman-influenced villas, Irish incursions, a Norman motte and bailey at Aberlleiniog (now provided with full public access), the last of the great Edwardian castles at Beaumaris, the nineteenth century development of Holyhead into one of Britain’s major ports, and the growth of sustainable energy in the form of wind turbines in recent years.
Includes an introduction and index.
Large-format hardback, 144 pages, with 148 colour and black & white illustrations.
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