Old and contemporary photographs of the churches and other places of worship in Llanallgo on Anglesey in North Wales

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High resolution old and contemporary photographs of Churches and other places of Worship in Llanallgo in the county of Anglesey (Sir Fôn) in North Wales, part of the United Kingdom.

Anglesey, Llanallgo, St Gallgo's Church - the Royal Charter Church

The church of Saint Gallgo in Llanallgo was originally dedicated in the 7th century, and is known as the church of the Royal Charter. In the year 1859, a ship named the Royal Charter set sail from Melbourne, Australia en route to the port of Liverpool, England - she would never arrive.

On board the Royal Charter there were 376 passengers, 11 riggers, and a crew of 103 - also a precious cargo of half a million pounds worth of Australian Gold. A great storm had blown up, and as a result the steamship Royal Charter sank, and all but 18 of the passengers, 5 riggers and 18 of the crew would perish on October the 26th 1859.

At that time the Rector of Llanallgo and Llaneugrad was the Reverend Stephen Rhoose Hughes, and the Rector of the nearby Penrhoslligwy church was his brother - the Reverend Hugh Robert Hughes.

As the bodies were washed ashore they were brought to the church of St gallgo in Llanallgo, which had been emptoed of furniture, and now served as a mortuary. The Reverend Stephen Rhoose Hughes made notes of every identfiable part of each corpse, and looked through their pockets in a determined effort to later help loved ones identify the victims. His brother helped.

By now the disaster was big news throughout Great Britain, and Charles Dickens - at that time a distinguished journalist, was despatched to Llanallgo, where he was given accommodation at the rectory.

Many of the bodies were buried here on the island, 140 at Llanallgo church , 45 at Penrhoslligwy church, and 64 at Llaneugrad church. As other bodies were washed up on beaches, so they were buried in that local church, which include Llanwenllwyfo, Llanddyfnan, Llanfair-Mathafarn-Eithaf, Llanbedrgoch, Llanddona, Pentraeth, and Amlwch.

Hearsay on the island of Anglesey is that as much of the gold was washed ashore, much of it was kept by the finders, and some families got rich from the disaster.

In February of 1862, a little over 2 years later - at the age of just 47, some say due to the experiences he had during the disaster, the Rev Stephen Rhoose Hughes died, and was laid to rest just yards from the graves of those who had perished in the storm, whom he had treated with such great respect.

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