There has been a stately home on the site of Hafodunos Hall since 1674, and, according to Wikipedia, occupation since at least 1530, although the site doesn't state the nature of the occupation. The name 'Hafodunos' seems likely to be an old one. A hafod is a summer dwelling used in a tradition of transhumance - the movement of people from place to place according the the seasons. I wonder if 'hafod unos' bears any relation to the tradition of the 'ty unnos'; the tradition of building a dwelling between sunset and sunrise to stake a claim on a piece of land. It seems likely that the original hafod would have been rather a lowly dwelling, nothing like the grand halls that have occupied the place since the early modern era.
The hall itself, not featured in this post, was built between 1861-1866 to the design of Sir George Gilbert Scott. The building was commissioned by the landowner of that time, Henry Robertson Sandbach, son of a slave owner and merchant, who had owned the estate since 1830. The gatehouse appears to be on the same design as the house, and so was probably also designed by Scott. A lodge doesn't appear in censuses before 1881, though, so it seems it was built, or began to be occupied, after 1871. Before this point the only other dwellings directly named Hafodunos are the hall, and Hafodunos Cottage, along with Hafodunos Yard. Hafodunos Cottage continues in the censuses after the lodge appears, as does Hafodunos Yard, which I suspect is the property now called Hafodunos Farm.
The Grade I listed hall was destroyed by arsonists in 2004 and is undergoing restoration, so perhaps the Grade II listed lodge is also being restored. More can be read about the hall and its designer in the Wikipedia article linked above.
The lodge sits at the entrance to the Hafodunos estate, not far out of the village of Llangernyw, at Ordnance Survey Grid Reference SH 8709 6731.
The place has obviously sustained damage over the years. It's hard to tell if it's undergoing restoration along with Hafodunos Hall, or whether it's simply been stripped. Some areas of the ornamental stonework almost look as if they've been restored, but it could just be that they've survived well.
The property is on a footpath, approached through a rather grand gateway. The footpath leads through the gates and along near the drive for a little distance before diverting to the left.
This isn't the original gate for the property. The design looks rather clunky and ill-suited to the graceful Venetian Gothic contours of the place.
The wooden side gate is a rather different design and appears to be original, or at least is a survival from the Victorian era. The railings to the right of the gate also seem to be the original ones.
The house is beautiful, but seems more designed to look pretty than to be a good place to bring up a family. That might not have been the original intention, though. While the later censuses show a family in residence, earlier occupation is mostly by the elderly, who might have found this a very comfortable and grand place to live compared with the cottages or servants' quarters they may have been used to.
The stonework around this north-eastern window has suffered a lot of damage in places, with all of the original chequered facade having been lost from beneath the arch.
Inside, the whole building seems to have been stripped, hopefully preparatory to restoration.
The removal of the ceilings at least gives a glimpse all the way up to the underneath of the roof, and the pattern of the brickwork can be see where the plaster has been taken off.
The stonework around this second north-eastern window is a lot more intact than some of the others.
Above this window is an arrow-slit that must look through to the loft.
A little more can be seen of the original wall finish in this room, as well as the remains of a small fireplace.
The lodge doesn't appear in censuses until 1881, which perhaps means that there wasn't a lodge before the house was rebuilt, or that it went by a different name. Certainly this building was built around the time of the mock gothic hall, rather than earlier. It's interesting that it doesn't appear in 1871, though. Perhaps this means the place wasn't built then, or simply that it happened to be unoccupied on the night of the 1871 census.
In 1881 the place was lived in by Henry Jones, 83, a widower, who is listed as being an agricultural labourer born in Gwytherin. He lives with his unmarried daughter Jane Jones, 45, born in Llangernyw. I hope that Henry wasn't still a labourer at 83. It seems that a lot of Henry's life was involved with Hafodunos. In the 1871 census, as a widower of 76, he seems to be living at the hall. The property is named simply as 'Hafodunos,' but the hall isn't mentioned elsewhere. The only occupants alongside Henry are daughters Jane, 34 a housemaid, and Harriet, 18, a dairy maid, but Henry is listed as a servant rather than head of the household, so it seems that they're caretakers while the house is vacant.
In 1861 Henry, 64, was living in the village of Llangernyw, working as an agricultural labourer, with wife Anne, 57, and daughter Margaret, 22, a dressmaker. 1851 he and his wife were living in the village with daughter Margaret, but his occupation was 'Shepherd, Hafodunos.' In 1841 he was living in Pentre Wern, Llangernyw, working as a labourer, living with wife Ann and daughters Jane, 4, and Margaret, 2.
A photo dated to c. 1885 shows the lodge in its heyday, with a group of people standing outside. It can be seen that the original driveway gate matches the side gates - one of which is missing now. It's impossible to see much through the windows apart from some curtains in the window to the right of the entrance. The grounds seem to be planted partly with monkey puzzle trees and pines. This photograph is from the People's Collection Wales, and was taken by John Thomas, 1838-1905. It has been reproduced here under a non-commercial Creative Commons license.
A close-up on the people standing at the gate.
It seems likely that these are Henry Jones and daughter Jane on the left, and that the family to the right are the inhabitants of Hafodunos Cottage. In 1881 'Garden Cottage' was lived in by James McVicar McNair, a 30 year old 'domestic gardener etc', his wife Elizabeth McNair, 29, and sons Charles L and George C McNair, aged 3 and 2. James was born in Scotland, Elizabeth in Edwinstowe, Nottinghamshire, and the children in Llangernyw. Given that the male members of the young family are all wearing tam o'shanters, it seems highly likely this is who it is in the photo.
By 1891 James McVicar McNair had moved with his family to Hale,
Cheshire, where he was a florist, and Henry Jones and his daughter no
longer live in the Lodge.
In 1891 the lodge is occupied by Ellis Owens, 70,
an agricultural labourer, and wife Anne Owens, 72. It seems likely that
Ellis Owens is the same Ellis Owens who was living at age 21 at Ty'n y
Pwll in Llangernyw, a farmer's son. In 1851 Ellis is still living at
home, but is married to Anne, with daughters Catherine and Sarah, aged 7
and 4, and he continues to live at Ty'n y Pwll right through to the
1881 census, appearing in the Lodge in 1891. Ellis died at the age of 77
in 1897, in Llanfair Talhaiarn, so he must have left the lodge before
his death. His strong connection with Ty'n y Pwll is shown in the burial
entry, which reads 'Penllan, Llanfair Talhaiarn, late of Ty'n y Pwll,
Llangerniew.' Ty'n y Pwll is directly over the road from Hafodunos Hall,
and it seems likely that Ellis was a tenant of the estate.
The right hand doorway lets onto a small space that still seems to have its plaster. I couldn't go into the building to look more closely at anything. All shots are taken through the windows.
By the 1901 census the house is being lived in by a much larger family than before. It seems the Lodge would have been a wonderful place for an elderly couple to live in, but in 1901 the place is hosting a family of five. Thomas Moore, born in Stafford, is a 'plumber and fitter,' aged 40. His wife Mary, born in Llangernyw, is 33. Their three daughters live with them, Celia, 11, born in Llangernyw, Ann, 8, born in Bradley Green, Staffordshire, and Phyllis, 3, born in Llangernyw. Rather sadly, although the mother speaks both Welsh and English, the rest of the family all speak English only. The censuses around 1901 and 1911 are the first to mention languages spoken, and show a gradual change from monolingual Welsh to bilingual younger people, and more and more often monolingual English speakers.
In 1911 the family are still living in the house, with Thomas' occupation now listed as 'Plumber and gas fitter.' Only Phyllis, now 13, is still living at home, and she still speaks only English.
Around the back of the building, this lovely green door leans up against its doorway.
Looking into this north-east room the inside wooden window frame can be seen, along with the electrical boxes on the wall.
At the back of the house an extension has been built onto the property, made of wood and sitting up at first floor level above the ground. I assume the staircase to this part of the house goes up to the left in this photo. I don't know what these three stalls might have been.
Looking along the north east face of the building, with the railings to the left separating the property from the road.
I assume this would have originally been the front door, with a covered walkway to it.
At the front of the house is this rather lovely bay window, with a lot of damage to the decorative surround.
The beautifully diamond patterned brickwork can be seen on the upper level, along with another arrow slit window.
The south-western side of the building is in quite good repair, still with the decorative patterning above one of the windows. The wood extension can just be seen to the left of the building at the end.
I don't know how recently the house was lived in. 'Lodge' appears in the
1939 register, near to Hafodunos in the list, so it seems likely this
is Hafodunos Lodge. It seems that the Harns family lived in the place, a family of six, but only two of the names aren't redacted. Agnes Harns was born on the 7th November, 1902. She's married and her occupation is 'unpaid domestic duties.' The next three names are redacted, followed by Eira Harns, later Davies, who was born on the 15th March, 1938. Another name is redacted beneath this one. Perhaps the house would have been a bit easier to live in as a family of six with the wooden extension on the back, but I don't know when this was built.
There's no date on this photo of 'Hafodunos Boarding School Entrance,' and no photographer name (the image owner is Ms Gill Slater, Llangernyw), but the hall was a boarding school for evacuees from Kent House School for Girls in Sale during WWII, and continued to be a boarding school until 1969. This photograph is from the People's Collection Wales, and has been reproduced here under a non-commercial Creative Commons license. It's impossible to tell from this photo if the wooden extension were here at this time.
There's another rather lovely fireplace in this room, although it's all been stripped back to the brick. It seems rather larger than the other fireplace, but with no original ironwork left it's hard to tell what would have filled the space. It seems likely this would have been the main room, so perhaps there was a kitchen range here.
Looking up to the loft above this fireplace. Perhaps this is some of the original colouring on the wall, although without knowing how recently the place was occupied, it's impossible to know when this dated from.
It's interesting to see this boarded up doorway with both a wooden beam and a brick arch over the top. I don't know if this is just an architectural practice, or if the door originally would have been arched too.
Looking towards the bay window that overlooks the driveway. There's still some plaster and also skirting board left here. The very ordinary window frames look a bit incongruous on the inside of the beautiful Gothic windows.
It seems that all of the doors have brick arches over them. The doorways look quite narrow, too.
There's a third, quite small, fireplace in this room. Perhaps the three fireplaces represent a kitchen range, the largest, a parlour fireplace, and this one perhaps being a bedroom fireplace.
It looks as if the floorboards have also been ripped out of the house, hopefully with the intention of restoring them.
There seems to be quite a height difference between the hearth and the current ground level in this room. Some of the original plaster can be seen high up on the wall.
It seems likely that the 'tide mark' near the bottom of the wall shows where the floor would have been, with a vent to outside underneath.
Another look up into the loft space, which wouldn't really have been high enough to have been of much use.
Most of the drainpipes are gone from the building, but the pipe around this side looks like a plastic one, which would imply the place was being looked after relatively recently. I'm afraid I didn't think to check the material of the drainpipe at the time.
This photograph was taken not long after the hall was burnt down, in 2005 by Paul White, and shows the lodge in a ruinous state, still with some cast iron drainpipes and with smashed windows. The chimney is still present at this time, and must have been taken down later. This photograph is from the People's Collection Wales, and has been reproduced here under a non-commercial Creative Commons license.
A wide angle shot shows what seems to be the main room more or less in its entirety.
These initials are pressed into the bricks under the south-east window.
I'm not sure if this is original wood panelling through the doorway on the right, or another door.
Viewing the gates from the driveway, it's easy to see the gap for the missing second pedestrian gate. I'm not sure of the purpose of two pedestrian gates except for symmetry. It would be lovely to see a copy of the original gate installed here.
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