Amlwch Regeneration Partnership
Welcome to Amlwch Regeneration Partnership and Amlwch Communities First Web Site. A web site that will allow the people from the community of Amlwch to receive first hand information about projects being developed by the Amlwch Regeneration Parnership and Amlwch’s Communities First partner organisation’s.
Amlwch is the most northerly town in Wales. It is situated on the north coast of the Isle of Anglesey, on the A5025 which connects it to Holyhead and to Menai Bridge. The town has no beach, but it has impressive coastal cliffs. Tourism is an important element of the local economy. At one time it was a busy port, with boats sailing to the Isle of Man and to Liverpool. A number of the houses date from the 19th century and add to the atmosphere of the town.
The name Amlwch is a reference to the site of the town’s harbour, Porth Amlwch – derives from the Welsh am (“about, on or around”) and llwch (an old word meaning inlet or creek)
The emergence of Amlwch as an important player on the international industrial stage grew from the discovery of vast reserves of copper on Parys Mountain. This discovery was made by local miner, Rowland Puw, who was given a bottle of whisky and a lifetime’s free rent on a local cottage for his work. Others, however, profited far more handsomely from the mining and export of the metal which was in great demand as Europe began its industrial revolution.
The Amlwch mines, under the direction of Anglesey lawyer and entrepreneur Thomas Williams, better known to the miners as Twm Chwarau Teg (Fair Play Tom), became the world’s most important producers of copper. Not only was it in huge demand by the emerging industries of the early years of the Industrial Revolution, the mining companies also produced sheathing for Nelson’s ‘Men of War’ as well as minting their own coinage.
During the 19th century the demand for men to work in the copper mining and ship building industries was far greater than the area around Amlwch could provide.
Workers came from other areas of Britain to fill the need. Many of these workers came from areas with a tradition of mining such as Caernarvonshire , Derbyshire , Glamorgan and Cornwall.
As the industries declined many famiies had to move away to find work in other areas or even abroad. This movement of people into and then out of Amlwch meant that many families have ancestors in the area.