THE VALLEY NAME

 

Research into the origins of the name of this village was started by the late Rev. R Hughes of Coedlys, Valley. The research was done for the year of the Royal National Eisteddfod, which was to be held locally.

 

The Rev. Hughes started his research by looking into the parish history. The parish is the parish of Llanynghenedl from whence the Community Council carried its name until a few years ago, even though the village of Valley is many times bigger than the village of Llanynghenedl. Enghendl was a saint who lived in the fifth century and it is thought that the second church at Llanynghenedl was built on the site of the first church. This second church has since been pulled down and the stones taken to RAF Valley for the erection of the church there.

 

Owen Jones, ‘Melidwy Môn’, referring on several occasions to the Valley, stated that the name of the village was ‘Faelwy’ and not Valley as it is presently known.

Robert Pierce of Criglas who died in 1881 ages 86 years, an alderman and a local administrator, stated that during the construction of the road from Menai Bridge to Holyhead, a distance of some eighteen and a half miles, the road reached the cob. A small hill was encountered through which a cutting had to be made. On either side of this cutting were areas called ‘Glan-Môr Tŷ Coch’ and on the northern side, where it is now commonly called Gorad, were land called Castell Llyffant. One could expect that Telford and his men could not pronounce these names and, after completing the cutting they called area ‘Valley’, in accordance with the new geography.

 

This particular area since became known as ‘Hen Valley’ and the main village ‘Valley’. This puts the name as originating about the year 1822.

Abstracted from Valley, memories of a growing village with permission from J. Alun Shorney