Earlier in the year I visited the station that almost everybody in the UK knows but has probably never visited. By travelling to the Isle of Anglesey I ticked off two major things from my bucket list; visiting Wales and a railway station I have always wanted to visit. Whether it is TV weatherman Liam Dutton nailing the village during a weather report in 2015, the numerous times it has cropped up in Buzz Feed style videos - American's try pronounce Welsh place names, or from a general knowledge pub quiz, the station Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is famous throughout the UK and the world, but is it for the correct reason? 
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is a village on the Isle of Anglesey in north Wales with a population of over 3,000. The village has a railway station that is on the North Wales Coast Line from Crewe to Holyhead. With the name of the village being 58 characters in length, not only is it the longest place name in the world, it is the longest railway station name in the world, right?
Well, that is what most people and online articles will make you believe. According to the Guinness World Records, the longest place name in the world is Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhen in New Zealand. The place that locals have shortened to Taumata does not have a railway station, so the famous station in Wales still takes the record for the worlds longest railway station name, surely?
If you try to book a ticket to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch online it will come up with an error message saying 'no search results'. That is because there is no such railway station named Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, it is actually named Llanfairpwll. Llanfairpwll is not the longest station name in the world, it is not even the longest station name in the UK. The longest station name in the UK is also in Wales, but not as difficult to pronounce as Llanfairpwll and so on, Rhoose Cardiff International Airport.
As for the longest railway station name in the world an article in the Indian Express says a station in Chennai has missed out on the title of the longest station name by just one letter. The station called Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central is 57 letters in length, but the article incorrectly names Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch as the worlds largest station. If you are reading this from Chennai trying to squeeze two more letters into the station name, there is no need.
So where did this incorrect fact come from? According to the Welsh-language poet Sir John Morris-Jones the name was created by a local tailor as a publicity stunt in the Victorian era to encourage tourists to the longest railway station in the country when it opened in 1869. It is believed only Sir John Morris-Jones knew the name of the tailor and unfortunately their name has remained a secret ever since. The translation into English has been some debate, so I will go along with the James Pringle Weavers shop that translate the name as 'St Marys Church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the rapid whirlpool of Llantysilio of the red cave'.
It is amazing in the 21st Century that a 19th Century publicity stunt is still drawing in tourists. Although Llanfairpwll is a request stop, it was certainly not quiet on my visit. I was not the only person to get off the train and when I left the village two couples got on the train to Birmingham International and two individuals joined me on the train to Crewe. I had planned to spend a nice day in the village, go for a walk, have a pint and lunch in a local pub, however, it say it chucked it down would be an understatement.
I did manage to visit the James Pringle Weavers shop. It is an amazing shop, you could buy anything in there, clothes, food, gifts, toys, anything! I had a walk up and down a wet Holyhead Road and learned that over 70% of people in the village can speak Welsh. I also learned that Rocketman star Taron Egerton went to school in the village. Once we return to some sort of normality I highly recommend a visit to the Isle of Anglesey and of course a visit to the famous station, even if it is not officially the longest station name in the world! 
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