Llanfairpwllgwyngyll is a large village and community on the island of Anglesey in Wales, situated on the Menai Strait next to the Britannia Bridge and across the strait from Bangor. It is alternatively known as Llanfairpwll, Llanfair PG, or Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (pronounced [ÌlanvairÌpulawhnÌahlaoÌa[rYÌÇwYrnÌdrobulÌlanthÌsiljoÌaoaoÈaoÐÇ] ( listen)). At the 2001 census the population of the community was 3,040,[1] 76% of whom speak Welsh fluently; the highest percentage of speakers is in the 1014 age group, where 97.1% speak Welsh.[citation needed] It is the sixth largest settlement on the island by population.
The long form of the name was invented for promotional purposes in the 1860s; with 58 characters it is the longest place name in Europe and one of the longest place names in the world. Visitors stop at the railway station to be photographed next to the station sign, visit the nearby Visitors' Centre, or have 'passports' stamped at a local shop. Another tourist attraction is the nearby Marquess of Anglesey's Column, which at a height of 27 metres (89 ft) offers views over Anglesey and the Menai Strait. Designed by Thomas Harrison, the monument celebrates the heroism of Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey at the Battle of Waterloo.
The long name cannot be considered an authentic Welsh-language toponym. It was artificially contrived in the 1860s to bestow upon the station the feature of having the longest name of any railway station in Britain, an early example of a publicity stunt. The village's website credits the name to a cobbler from the nearby village of Menai Bridge. According to Sir John Morris-Jones the name was created by a local tailor, whose name he did not confide, letting the secret die with him. The current postmark shows the name Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, but there are contemporary examples of the full name seen below.
The eponymous St Mary's Church The village was originally known as Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll ("St Mary's church in [the township named] hollow of the white hazel"). Pwllgwyngyll was the original mediaeval township where the village is today.[2] Old variants (with the Welsh spelling normalized) were Llanfair y Pwllgwyngyll (y = "(of) the") and Llanfair Ymhwll Gwyngyll (mh is a sandhi change (nasal mutation) from 'n p', and "yn" = 'in').
The village is split into two smaller villages, Llanfairpwllgwyngyll-uchaf (Upper Llanfairpwllgwyngyll), the original part of the village, and Llanfairpwllgwyngyll-isaf (Lower Llanfairpwllgwyngyll), the newer area nearer the railway station. These are occasionally referred to as Pentre Uchaf and Pentre Isaf (Upper Village and Lower Village).
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