Melin Llandegfan

Melin Llandegfan, 2004

This mill has been encroached upon by the growing village of Llandegfan and is surrounded by houses, but now has pride of place as someone's garden ornament.

It is thought to have been built in the 1820s. In the early 1840s it was owned by Hugh Beaver Esq. (who also owned the Glyn Garth estate on the shore of the Menai Strait) and was run by Henry Thomas. It unfortunately burned down in December 1841, but was probably rebuilt fairly rapidly. By 1844 the tithe apportionment shows Edward Evans, owner of Bryn Teg and several other nearby farms and fields, as the owner and occupier of Felin Wynt ("wind mill").

It's not clear who was running the mill after this, as the 1851 and 1861 censuses do not show anyone with the occupation of miller, but in 1871 Owen Parry was named as a miller. He occupied one of several houses around the mill called Tŵr Felin ("mill tower"), which he had also occupied in 1851 and 1861, so he may have been the miller the entire time. He died in 1875, aged 53. His unmarried daughter Margaret continued living there until at least 1911, working as a dressmaker and washerwoman.

The subsequent censuses don't list any millers in the area (other than the ones at the Cadnant watermill), although it may have been run by one of the labourers in the Tŵr Felin houses. It probably became disused in the early 20th century and is marked as "old windmill" on the post-World War One Ordnance Survey maps. The sails and cap were still present in 1929, according to Rex Wailes, but they disappeared sometime in the early 1930s. Sometime after 1936 much of the stone from the upper part of the tower was removed, leaving just a shortened base.

After this a tank was placed in the mill to store water from the nearby stream to provide water to the village. The ongoing expansion of the village meant that by the 1960s this was inadequate, so mains water, originating from Cefni Reservoir, was brought to the village. The tank was eventually removed.

By the early 1990s the tower was overgrown with ivy but in the intervening years this has been removed, although it is still an empty and roofless shell.

Melin Llandegfan, 2004