3600 VISION
OLD MILL TO GET NEW LIFE – AND A NEW LOOK
AANGLESEY’S oldest known windmill has been an iconic landmark for almost three centuries - but in recent years it was in danger of falling into ruin. As these photos show, Melin Gallt-ybenddu is now set for a new lease of life – with a new look that will make it even more distinctive.
The Llanerchymedd windmill, once celebrated in verse as the best on Anglesey, lost its roof and sails in a storm more than a century ago. In 1964 it was restored by Edgar Williams and now his son is rescuing it all over again.
A new conical roof is being added which, when complete, will cover a tower-top room offering stunning 360-degree views across the island. Iestyn Williams, the mill’s thirdgeneration custodian, hopes it will be finished before the end of this year.
Iestyn and wife Sioned have yet to decide whether to move in or to rent it initially as a holiday let. “We live in Llangefni and our children go to school there,” said Sioned. “so moving in may have to be a longterm option.”
Living in a five-storey building, with endless stair-climbing, is not for everyone. Although the couple have embraced the idea, if not immediately, saving the historic building was always their primary motivation.
In latter years they had watched Iestyn’s dad Edgar valiantly battle the mill’s slow decline. In 1964 he renovated the building as a quirky B&B, but by the 1990s guests had stopped coming and when Edgar died in 2018, water damage was becoming increasingly apparent.
“There was a danger of it going to rack and ruin,” said Sioned. “It was such a shame to see how bad it had become.”
Just like today, Anglesey’s wind was seen as a valuable resource in the 18th and 19th centuries as demand for wheat, maize and barley rose. A handful of windmills had existed on the island for hundreds of years but all had disappeared by the time the first of the new generation mills were constructed.
Almost 50 are known to have been built from the 18th century. The earliest mill with a known construction date was Melin Gallt Y Benddu (Mill on the Black Hill), which was completed in 1738. It was commissioned during periods of drought when water mills were struggling to run efficiently.
In their heyday, Anglesey’s windmills were a prominent part of life on the island and were celebrated in poetry. Of all the island’s mills, the one at Llanerchymedd was said to “grind best of all”.
A succession of millers occupied a building that had inherent dangers. In 1841 alone, two visitors were killed there: a farmer’s wife and a four-year-old child both strayed too close to its rotating sails.
Until 1873, the mill was run by John Williams. After his death, the 86-year-old miller was succeeded shortly afterwards by 15-year-old Hugh Jones, who apparently made a pretty good go of it.
By this time, however, the writing was on the wall for Anglesey’s windmills. As grain imports increased, depressing prices, local farmers switch to livestock production, and the advent of steam-powered milling in Holyhead and Liverpool signalled the end.
A few of Anglesey’s windmills limped into the 20th century, with Melin y Gof, the last working mill, closing in 1936. Gallt Y Benddu had long since been abandoned, its cap and sails blown off in the late 1890s. Only the intervention of Iestyn’s dad saved it from complete ruin: In the 1960s the mill was then owned by his grandfather, Robert John Williams.
Now Anglesey architectural technologist Adrian Williamson, of Gaerwen-based WM Design & Architecture, is overseeing its latest revival. Having previously converted a watermill in Nant Ffrancon near Bethesda, and revamped a lime kiln in Red Wharf Bay, renovating a windmill was a marriage of ideas and skills from both.
“This remodelling introduces a new conical roof and brings the mill up to date with a viewing area on the very top floor,” said Mr Williamson. Keeping things local, the specialist renovations are being carried out by P&C Building Contractors, Llanerchymedd.
Getting to this stage was a fiveyear slog. Determined to save Gallt Y Benddu, Iestyn bought out his siblings’ shares and Sioned entered the labyrinthine world of planning, building regs and the Land Registry (technically, Gallt Y Benddu is still officially recorded as the “old windmill”).
Of the 32 partial or full windmills remaining on Anglesey, just one has been renovated as a working mill. Ten still stand at their full height. Several have already been converted into dwellings and at least three have been given conical roofs.
Finding a new use for a building, either as a house or holiday let, enables owners to preserve a historical asset that might otherwise crumble to dust.
For Iestyn, it was also a matter of family pride. “He’s the third generation to own the mill and he’s keen to see it passed on to future generations,” said Sioned.