Journey North Mystery Class Spring 2004

Introducing Mystery Class #10
Isle of Anglesey, Wales (53.167 N, 4.283 W)

Hello! First we want to start by introducing ourselves. My name is Jess and my friend is Rachel. We are both 14 and have lived on the Isle of Anglesey, Wales for all our lives. We want to tell you a little about the place where we live.

The island itself is the UK’s biggest island and we have 55,000 people living on it. Until 5 years ago we only had 3 sets of traffic lights but now there is a dual carriageway (a freeway?) crossing the island so you can get from one end to the other in 25 minutes or you can go the scenic way and the coast line is 125 miles of beautiful beaches and cliffs. Try looking for us or for Wales at: www.Visitwales.com

Click on Map to enlarge
Credit: Warren Kovach, Kovach Computing Services

Strangely enough, the original language of Anglesey is Welsh, although the main language is English. In fact, Rachel goes to school where most things are bilingual, and I go to a school where everything is English.

Anglesey is a wonderful Island. Although it is quite far away from anywhere, there is still lots to do:

Suggestions-- Anglesey Show, weather, culture, welsh cake etc, snow, bara brith, sea, watersports, beaches, all of Anglesey’s castles, attractions, port to Ireland, Llanfairpg, marques of Anglesey statue, restaurants.

Our address has the 56-lettered name in it, and I suspect most of you used that as one of the clues. When translated, this long name means "the church of St. Mary in the hollow of the white hazel near the fierce whirlpool and the church of Tysilio by the red cave."

I believe it is the longest e-mail address for the town but as you can imagine people just shorten it to "Llanfair" rather than Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychchwrndrobwyllllantyseiliogogogoch.
	Click here to hear the town name spoken.
Audio Credit: Warren Kovach, Kovach Computing Services

Our island is warmer than most places in Britain because we are by the sea and the Gulf Stream comes from the tropics, and it is constantly washing round the island before going further north.

In addition to bringing us warm temperatures, the Gulf Stream also brings us an abundant source of clean seawater from which to harvest salt. Before the water gets to us, it travels from deep in the Atlantic.

My parents Alison and David own the Anglesey Sea Salt Company, HALEN MON, (which means Anglesey Salt in our language of Welsh) which is located here on the Isle of Anglesey.

We are in a very clean unpolluted area. After drawing the seawater from under the sand, we can evaporate sea water and make delicate soft white crystals that taste delicious. This is my dad, David.

It takes around 35 gallons of seawater to make 10 lbs of salt, and as it is made by hand it is the absolute best and probably one of the more expensive as well.

The Anglesey Sea Salt Company

There is very little industry here, and sea salt is a business that can operate year round. We send salt to 14 countries around the world including America.

By the way, although we are a small company, a woman called Martha Stewart heard of us and sent a film crew over and a few months later we were getting hundreds of web orders a night for a few weeks. Now we have a steady supply of salt shipped to 4 wholesalers and we are pleased that some Americans and Canadians are using the salt.

We have a sister business on the Isle called Anglesey Sea Zoo and this is a public aquarium that opens for the visitor season from February to November. About 75,000 visitors a year come to us which is a lot for around here. But it isn’t compared to Florida where that number visit Sea world in 2 days. We breed lobsters for putting back and have baby seahorses as we are committed to conservation.