St Edwen’s Church, Llanedwen

button-theme-crimeSt Edwen’s Church, Llanedwen

St Edwen’s church stands in isolation amid fields, close to the Menai Strait. The building we see here today dates from the 1850s, when a new church replaced an older one. Some of the carving inside dates from the 14th century. It is one of few regularly-used churches still lit entirely by candles. The liturgy of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer is still used here.

In 1875 the curate of Llanddaniel Fab and Llanedwen, Rev Thomas Morris Hughes, was tried at the Anglesey Assizes for lying about the birth and death of Ernest Hamer, the baby he’d fathered with his stepdaughter Alice Hamer. The pair had shared a bed at the Penrhyn Arms Hotel, Bangor, and other places.

Ernest died from being fed inappropriate food, which he couldn’t digest. He was buried in Conwy but police exhumed the body. Hughes said the father was a Thomas Hughes of Harleston, Staffordshire, but this was soon disproved. He was banned from officiating in Bangor diocese before his case at the Assizes, where he received a five-year prison sentence. This was one of the last major cases prosecuted by David White Griffith in his 19 years as Anglesey’s chief constable.

Postcode: LL61 6EZ    View Location Map

Parish website

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