page_title: St Gallgo's Church, Llanallgo
section_title: History and location
hierarchical_section_title: St Gallgo's Church, Llanallgo / History and location
context_page_description: St Gallgo's Church is a small church near the village of Llanallgo, on the east coast of Anglesey, north Wales. The chancel and transepts, which are the oldest features of the present building, date from the late 15th century, but there has been a church on the site since the 6th or early 7th century, making it one of the oldest Christian sites in Anglesey. Some restoration and enlargement took place during the 19th century.
  The church is associated with the 1859 wreck of the Royal Charter off Anglesey; it was used as a temporary mortuary, and 140 of the victims are buried in the churchyard. Charles Dickens, who wrote about the loss of the ship, noted the care taken by the rector, Stephen Roose Hughes, for the victims and their families. Hughes died a few years later following the strain of the events and is also buried in the churchyard.
  The church is still used for worship by the Church in Wales, as one of four churches in a combined parish. There is a regular pattern of services in English and in Welsh.
context_section_description: St Gallgo's Church stands to the southwest of the village of Llanallgo, near the eastern coast of Anglesey, north Wales. It is about 6 miles (9.7 km) from Llangefni, the county town. According to the 19th-century writer Samuel Lewis, St Gallgo established the first church here in the early 7th century; Angharad Llwyd, a 19th-century historian of Anglesey, gives the foundation year as 605. Another writer, Geraint Jones, puts it earlier, and says in his 2006 guide to the churches of Anglesey that Gallgo established the church in the early 6th century; Jones says that it is "one of the oldest Christian sites in Anglesey." Gallgo was one of the sons of St Caw, a king from northern Britain, and a brother of St Gildas and St Eugrad (the latter establishing the nearby church of St Eugrad's in about 605 as well. Llwyd also recorded that there was a well near the church named after Gallgo, and said that "miraculous cures" had been ascribed to the waters, which were "strongly impregnated with sulphate of lime".
  The village takes its name from the church; the Welsh word llan originally meant "enclosure" and then "church", and "-allgo" is a modified form of the saint's name. The presence of a church here was recorded in the Norwich Taxation of 1254, but the oldest parts of the structure of the present building (the chancel and transepts) date from the late 15th century. It was formerly used as a chapel of ease for St Eugrad's Church.  Repair work was carried out in 1831, which included adding a west window, and extensive restoration in 1892 (under Henry Kennedy, the architect of the Diocese of Bangor) included rebuilding the west walls of the transepts and lengthening the nave. In 1934, the sanctuary was restored in memory of a former rector, Stephen Roose Hughes. The vestry was badly damaged by fire in 2004, but has since been repaired.
  The churchyard contains 140 victims of the sinking of the Royal Charter off Anglesey in October 1859, and an obelisk commemorates the loss. Over 440 passengers and crew died.  Stephen Roose Hughes was the rector at the time of the accident. St Gallgo's was used as a temporary mortuary as bodies were recovered from the sea. Hughes and his brother Hugh, who was rector of an adjoining parish, conducted many of the funeral services.  Hughes wrote over 1,000 letters to people enquiring for news of relatives and friends, and comforted many who visited Anglesey. Charles Dickens stayed with Hughes when he visited Anglesey to write about the sinking; his experiences were published in The Uncommercial Traveller.  He recorded the care that Hughes took to try and identify victims from their possessions and physical characteristics.  Hughes died three years later; the strain of the events was noted on his gravestone in the churchyard as one of the reasons for his early death. He is remembered in St Gallgo's on the anniversary of his death, 4 February. The churchyard also contains two Commonwealth war graves, of a Royal Engineers soldier of World War I and a Merchant Navy sailor of World War II.
  The poet Dafydd Trefor is recorded in a list of clergy for the Bangor diocese of 1504 as being rector of St Gallgo's and St Eugrad's, and signed himself as such in a deed of 1524; he was buried in the churchyard. The poet and historian John Williams (better known by his bardic name "Glanmor") was rector of the two churches from 1883 until his death in 1891; he too is buried at Llanallgo.
  St Gallgo's is still used for worship by the Church in Wales.  It is one of four churches in the combined benefice of Llaneugrad and Llanallgo with Penrhosllugwy with Llanfihangel Tre'r Beirdd.  It is within the deanery of Twrcelyn, the archdeaconry of Bangor and the Diocese of Bangor.  As of 2012, the position of rector is vacant. The pattern of services in 2012 is for two services every Sunday morning, alternating between a communion service and morning prayer, in English at 8.30am and in Welsh at 10am.  There is also a twice-monthly evening service (in English), and a midweek communion service in the church hall in Moelfre. Services ar
caption: Black and white print on lithograph c. 1860.
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