Qualla: Mechell, Anglesey

Mechell, Anglesey: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eric Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0. Six medieval churches stand within the small north-Anglesey community of Mechell. Sixteen prehistoric sites, scheduled or otherwise, lie scattered across the same agricultural landscape - standing stones, burial mounds, hilltop enclosures, the remains of medieval mills and at least nine nineteenth-century chapels. The whole community, which takes its name from the sixth-century saint Mechell, holds 1,293 people across the dispersed villages of Llanfechell, Tregele, Llanfflewyn, Mynydd Mechell, Bodewryd, Rhosbeirio and Carreglefn. But the most consequential building in the parish through the second half of the twentieth century was none of these. The Wylfa Nuclear Power Station, on the north coast just outside the community boundary, generated electricity from 1971 to 2015 and was the sole substantial employer for several thousand people across northern Anglesey. After Trawsfynydd shut down, Wylfa was the only operating nuclear plant in Wales.

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Image: Eric Jones | CC BY-SA 2.0

Mechell, Anglesey: The Bones of the Land

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ray West, CC BY-SA 2.0. Inland farms make up the bulk of Mechell, with a narrow strip reaching to the north coast east of Cemaes Bay through Llanbadrig community. To the east lies Cylch-y-Garn, to the south Tref Alaw and Rhosybol. The settlement pattern is dispersed - small clusters of houses around a c...

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Image: Ray West | CC BY-SA 2.0

Mechell, Anglesey: Mills and Methodism

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eric Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0. Mechell's agricultural economy supported an impressive infrastructure of milling. The community once held four watermills and three windmills along the Afon Cafnan and its tributaries. Meddanen Water Mill and Melin Mechell Windmill sat close enough together that the same miller p...

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Image: Eric Jones | CC BY-SA 2.0

Mechell, Anglesey: Wylfa

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eric Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0. Wylfa Nuclear Power Station opened in 1971 on the coast 3 kilometres northwest of Llanfechell, paired with the older Trawsfynydd plant in Snowdonia as one of the two Magnox reactors in Wales. For forty-four years the twin reactor buildings dominated the north Anglesey skyline. Th...

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Image: Eric Jones | CC BY-SA 2.0

Mechell, Anglesey: The Diarist's Country

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eric Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0. Of all the historical figures connected with Mechell, the most useful to historians is William Bulkeley (1691-1760), whose surviving diary covers daily Anglesey life from 1734 to 1760. He lived at Brynddu on the edge of Llanfechell. He noted weather, prices, harvest, gossip; he c...

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Image: Eric Jones | CC BY-SA 2.0