England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Llanfihangel Esgeifiog St Michael

The Parish

The parish of Llanfihangel Esgeifiog lies in eastern Anglesey not too far from its coastline with the Menai Straits. Llanfihangel Esgeifiog is located about 2 miles southeast of the small market town of Llangefni. There is very little to modern day Llanfihangel Esgeifiog, it does not even merit an annotation on modern Ordnance Survey maps, most properties in the parish are grouped along the route of the A5 road between Bangor and Holyhead, built by Thomas Telford, in Gaerwen & Pentre Berw. Such was the impact of the cross-island route that not only population but also the church migrated to its chosen line. Whilst the majority of the parish would have been devoted to farming a mining operation exploited the island's only coalfield for a short while before even the implementation of steam power was unable to prevent waterlogging of the seams and efforts were abandoned as uneconomic. The northeast to southwest swathe of Malltraeth Marches which divide the island almost into two form a substantial part of the northern portion of the parish, pastoral farming predominating whilst arable dominated the dryer portions of the parish. Man has made numerous efforts to drain these marshes and most water from the parish flows southwestwards along man-made drains to reach the Irish Sea through Malltraeth. Llanfihangel Esgeifiog is sited at around 30 metres above the sea by the ruined old church, rising to 40 metres along the A5, land is more or less at this level or lower for some distance barely reaching 60 metres between this area and the Menai. The wider parish of Llanfihangel Esgeifiog was extensive, it would have covered almost 2,900 acres and had a small detached portion separated by a nose of Llanidan parish, within those acres a population of close to 900 parishioners would have been supported. Like most of Wales Llanfihangel Esgeifiog is not mentioned in Domesday Book which did not cover this area.

The Church

The ruin of St Michael's church lies some distance from the A5 accessed by footpath from the lane running from Pentre Berw to Pentraeth. The construction of Telford's route across the island brought a shift in the centre of population and in 1847 a new church also dedicated to St Michael was begun in Gaerwen to serve the parish. The old church was a roofless ruin by, at least, 1930 and today is merely a spot to visit and reflect. Within a round "llan", an indication of an ancient origin, all that remains are the outer walls and bellcote of what had been a largely 17th century construction. To reach the ruin head north from Pentre Berw for just over a half mile where a signpost, beside a cottage, points half left and leads to the site of old St Michael, there is no parking in the narrow lane so a car is best left in Pentre Berw.