21079

 

II  

Designated  

23/12/1998  

23/12/1998  

Courtyard and ranges at Mona  

 

Isle of Anglesey  

Llangristiolus  

Bodorgan  

Cerrigceinwen  

242524  

374912  

SW  

The house is prominently sited, and set back slightly, from the SW side of the A5(T), the courtyard range to the rear; c2.5km NE of the church of St. Cristiolus.  

Agriculture and Subsistence  

 

Early C19 coaching inn, built to serve travellers along the then newly constructed London to Holyhead road. The road between Shrewsbury and Holyhead had been surveyed by Thomas Telford in 1811, his scheme to build the new road accepted by Parliament in 1815, and work began on the Anglesey stretch in 1818. Mona Inn was built in connection with the construction of the road, and was the venue for the Anglesey Hunting Club meetings of 1822-3, but its success as an Inn was short-lived, possibly as an indirect result of the opening of the railway across the island in 1848 (the Britannia bridge opened in 1850); by 1851 Mona Inn had become Mona Farm. To the rear of the main house is a rectangular courtyard, leading through to a second courtyard beyond; neither range appears on the tithe map of the parish of 1842 (though this may have been an omission on the part of the surveyor), they are recorded on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map of Anglesey, 1887-8. The second courtyard is now derelict and some of the ranges converted into use as domestic dwellings. The main house and courtyard buildings were being renovated at the time of the survey (June 1998).  

To the rear of the main house, and abutting the NW wing, is a U-shaped planned range of outbuildings around a large courtyard. Built of local rubble masonry with dressed stone heads to the coachhouse bays, other openings with slate lintels; roofs of slates laid to diminishing courses, a single roughly-dressed stone ridge stack to the NE end of the SE range. The courtyard is dominated by a lofted 5-bay coachhouse, centrally placed along the linking (SW) range. The coachhouse is taller than, and advanced from the abutting buildings; the ground floor has 5-bays with shallow elliptical ashlar heads, some bays with double boarded doors, the central bay with opposing opening to the rear, originally leading to the courtyard beyond. Each bay has a centrally placed 1st floor opening; the central 3 are louvred, that to the left (SE) has a 6-pane light, that to the right (NW) now boarded. The abutting buildings are lofted stables, with 1st floor servants accommodation, the ranges have boarded doors and some of the original 6-pane lights remaining; other openings blocked, boarded or open. The roof at the NE end of the NW range has been re-roofed with corrugated iron.  

 

Listed as a good example of an early C19 courtyard range associated with the adjacent coaching Inn, Mona Isaf; of historical interest for its association with the building of the London to Holyhead road, designed by Thomas Telford.