Home Farm, Plas Newydd, Llanddaniel Fab, Isle of Anglesey

History

Built 1804 as the home farm for Plas Newydd, probably designed by Joseph Potter, who re-built or re-modelled many of the estate cottages and farm buildings during the early C19. The original home farm was much closer to the house, and was moved to its present location on the advice given by Humphrey Repton in his Red Book of 1798-9. The present farm was built to U-plan, with a small stable on the N side extended later in C19 to nearly enclose the yard. Part of the cartshed-granary was converted into a farmhouse, and a dairymaid's cottage formed from agricultural building, in the late C19 or early C20. Domestic windows were added to the E range left of the entrance. A number of doors to cowhouse were blocked to form windows, and doors to hammels blocked or converted to windows early-mid C20. In the early C20 the present entrance to the farm was formed, leading from the A4080. A brick dairying unit was built on site of the hammel yards in the mid C20.

The Plas Newydd Estate was one of the largest estates on Anglesey, passing to the Bagenal family in 1553 and through marriage to the Bayly family in the C18. In 1812 the estate passed to Henry William, Lord Uxbridge's eldest son; Henry was created 1st Marquess of Anglesey in 1815, and his descendants inherited both estate and title. A number of improvements to the buildings of the estate followed the completion of the main house at Plas Newydd in the early C19; by 1873 the estate is recorded as being 3,848 ha in size, including scattered lands and land around the mansion of Plas Newydd.

Exterior

Farm complex with original buildings forming U-plan; the S range is a single storey block with cowhouse and hammel, with advanced 2-storey wings either side, projecting N; E wing having lofted stable range, offices and servants quarters, W wing having corn-barn, cartsheds and farmhouse. The buildings surround 3 sides of a courtyard, open to the N, with main entrances through opposite archways in E and W wings. A stable range was added to the N side of the yard in the late C19, and there is a third entrance in the NE corner. The E and W wings are of two storeys with hipped slate roofs, and a raised pyramidal roof over the entrance archways. The wings are linked at the S by a single storey range with pitched slate roof. Walls of roughly squared rubble masonry with cambered brick arch heads to openings, and slate sills.

E wing: Main entrance through archway under a raised pyramidal roof and louvred cupola; stone arched head to exterior, brick arched to interior. To left (N) of entrance (viewed from courtyard), are servant's quarters; a 2-storey, 3-window range with door either end, that to the right being a stable door. Walls and chimney rendered; later small-paned windows set into original openings with cambered heads. Attached to N end is single storey boiling house with lean-to slate roof and tall brick chimney. To right (S) of archway is a lofted stable range including small farm office, tack-room, stables and loose-boxes. A range of 3 cambered-headed doorways with 2 windows between; windows to left are 8 and 10-pane lights over hit-and-miss ventilators, windows to stables have 14-pane lights over similar ventilators. Boarded doors to left with stable door to rignt end and full-height, boarded door to loft with sack hoist.

S range: single storey 21-bay range, comprising 9-bay cowhouse to left (E) and 12-bay hammel to right. Cowhouse originally with 7 doors with vertical slits between; now 2 doors and 5 windows (3-pane lights with hit-and-miss ventilators). Hammel with lower parts of walls and arched doors of brick; upper courses of stone. Nine of the 12 original doorways are blocked, 4 to form windows. The hammel yard has been built over with modern brick dairy buildings.

W wing: Entrance archway under raised pyramidal roof and cupola (identical to E entrance). To the left (S) is an asymmetrical 6-bay corn-barn with 3 rows of slit vents, and full-height threshing doors with brick heads to inner face and stone to outer. To right (N) of entrance, with a lower roofline than the corn-barn, is a 4-bay cartshed with 4-window granary over; the cart bay to the right has been blocked and a smaller door inserted (forming the back door of the farmhouse), and the one left of that converted to a wide window; the two granary windows over the right end have modern domestic windows (forming the back of the farmhouse). Two brick chimneys. On the ground floor, to the left end, is a boarded door to granary. To the right of the cartshed is an advanced 2-storey, 2-window domestic wing with hipped slate roof, central brick chimney and small-paned sash windows.

Farmhouse: The front of the farmhouse, on the W side of the cartshed-granary, is a 2-storey, 3-window range with a central gabled porch and asymmetrical window arrangement, showing the conversion from its original function as an agricultural building. The added porch has a round stone arched window; to left is 12-pane sash window, to right 20-pane French window, both square-headed. First floor window above porch, and to right, has cambered brick head and small-paned windows. Larger window to left with square head. Abutting the N side of the farmhouse is a smaller cottage, also converted from an agricultural building, and known as the Dairymaid's Cottage. Modern windows with brick architraves cut into gable end.

Other buildings: stable range: On the N side of the courtyard is a single storey stable range with stabling for 7 horses. Two bays to right are original, with 5 bays added to left. Rubble walls and gabled slate roof. Loose-box: In the N corner of the courtyard, next to the entrance created in the early C20, is a loose box for 2 horses with a small yard either end. Rubble walls, hipped slate roof with pitched roof addition to N. Blocked door to E side. Dairy: On the E side of the E wing, to the right of the entrance, is a 2 bay dairy with slate lean-to roof. Pigsty: On the E side of the E wing, attached to the yard wall N of the dairy is a 2-unit pigsty with a slate lean-to roof.

Interior

Sawn and bolted king-post with struts roof trusses to main buildings. There is a bell in the louvred cupola over the E archway, and water tanks in the loft below.

Reasons for Listing

Listed notwithstanding alterations, as a model farm designed by Joseph Potter, one of the architects of Plas Newydd. The complex retains much of its original character, and represents one aspect of the economic management of the estate, as well as forming part of a local group which also includes the square garden, apple house, rectangular garden, and Plas Llanedwen.

External Links

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