Talhenbont Hall

The family of Plas Hen (today named Talhenbont) descended from (c.1000 – 1050), Lord of Ardudwy and Eifionydd, founder of the 5th of the Fifteen Tribes of Wales, . Around 1416, the family settled in the area. Madog ap Ifan ap Einion of Ystumllyn, Criccieth, grandson of Ynyr Fychan (Lord of Plas Nannau) married the daughter of Rhys ap Tudur (Tudors of Penmynydd). Madog's grandson married an heiress of Trefan, and the property along with Plas Hen (Talhenbont) was passed from Gruffydd ap John ap Grono to their son Gruffudd ap Robert Fychan (Vaughan), who married Elizabeth of Ystumcegid and had a large family . The property then passed to Robert Vaughan, Fychan's grandson, and it was later inherited by Robert's brother Richard (Sheriff of Caernarvonshire, 1600) of the Vaughan of Corsygedol (Cors-Y-Gedol) family. Plas Hen Hall ownership Vaughan of Corsygedol The mansion standing today was constructed in 1607 by William Vaughan (d. 1633) of the House of Corsygedol, a dynasty started in Merionethshire by the Irishman Osbwrn Wyddel around the 13th century. William's father first constructed Corsygedol in 1576, and the Hall was extended by William in 1592, a little more than a decade before he oversaw the reconstruction of Plas Hen (Talhenbont). He married and had children with Ann Vaughan (of a different Vaughan family), heiress of Richard Vaughan of Plas Hen, Mostyn baronets The last generation of Vaughan ownership began with William Vaughan (1707–1775), who attended Cambridge University. Vaughan was Custos rotulorum, and MP for Merioneth from 1734 for six parliaments until 1768. He married an heiress of the Nannau estate, Catherine Nanney, daughter of Colonel Huw Nanney, on 16 February 1733. The couple had one daughter, Anne Vaughan (1734–1767). He was buried at St Dwywe's Church, Llanddwywe. William had no male heirs, so the estate passed to his brother, Evan Lloyd Vaughan MP, the last male representative of Plas Hen. His niece Margaret, an heiress, married Sir Thomas Mostyn (6th Baronet Mostyn), and occupied the estate from 1796 onwards, as well as inheriting her estate of Corsygedol, Bodidris Hall, and Wynn family owned Bodysgallen Hall estate. Through her inheritance, the Halls passed to the family of the Mostyn baronets. Ellis-Nanney baronets Plas Hen was later the home of William Williams. In 1845, Talhenbont Hall and surrounding land was purchased by the Ellis-Nanney family from the Mostyn baronets for £50,000 (equivalent to £ million in ). The Hall became part of the Ellis-Nanney's estate of over . They renamed it Talhenbont Hall from Plas Hen. In 1884, the estate was split to pay debts that had accumulated during the Napoleonic Wars. The former Ellis-Nanney baronets of Gwynfryn and Cefndeuddwr estate was further broken up and sold to its tenants in 1959. ==Plas Hen Hall==

The original 17th-century mansion was named Plas Hen, and built in a T shape but this was altered to a W cross-wing home, with an addition in the northeast of the Hall of a gabled porch leading to the parlour and a service wing added by the 19th-century owner of the home. In the 17th century, entrance is restored oak panelling. Talhenbont's exterior is a two-storey home with an attic made of rubble stonework with ashlar cut stone walls as a slate-roofed house with slate tiled copings. The main building was also altered in the 18th century. The mansion also includes slate gabled roofs, fireplaces, and tall chimney stacks. The architect also installed stone ovolo-mullioned windows throughout. There is a large central gable in the wing and a visible difference where the terminal stack shows where the original Hall and the new additions were merged. Also, there are stone-bracketed eaves. To the east is a narrow wing that has been whitewashed with additions made to the hipped slate roof. Around the hall and wing is a plinth with an ogee moulding. Another ogee features over the original doorway on the southwest of the house of a Tudor arch with their family coat of arms above the door. The sculpted stone square tablet is inscribed; the initials WV, suggesting William Vaughan of Corsygedol, and the date of Talhenbont's construction in 1607. Then the quarterly of Collwyn ap Tangno (5/15 Tribes of Wales), Osborn Wyddel, four lions passant (Kingdom of Gwynedd), and Ednyfed Fychan with the initials AV, presumably Ann Vaughan of Plas Hen. Today, the hall is operated as a wedding venue. The coat of arms on the north front bears the family motto: Before conversion into rental accommodation in the 1980s, the estate's cottages were used by farmworkers. There was an outbuilding that had been used as a pigsty, a stable with a round-headed doorway, and a southeast-facing coach house at the back of the house. The coach house included the grooms' quarters, in a single room with a chimney. ==In television==

In 2011, Talhenbont Hall was the subject of an episode of the BBC One Hidden Houses series, presented by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. == References ==