Hafotty

The original house at Hafotty was built of wood.[1] This house is recorded as "Bodiordderch" ("the house of Iordderch"), and has also been called 'Bodarddar'.[2][3] Anthony Emery dates this wooden house to the second quarter of the 14th century.[4] Its original owner was Thomas Norres from Lancashire.[2] In 1535 the house was in the possession of Henry Norris, Constable of Beaumaris Castle.[lower-alpha 1][6] By the 16th century, Hafotty had passed to the Bulkeleys, another prominent North Wales family,[lower-alpha 2] and had acquired its present name, meaning summer house, or summer dairy.[1] Cadw records extensions to the house in the 16th century, and its re-casing in stone in the 17th.[6] By the 20th century, Hafotty was in a state of some dereliction,[10] but was restored in the 1970s and again in the early 21st century.[5] The house remains in the possession of the Bulkeleys, although under the care of Cadw, and is occasionally open to the public.[2][11]

The Gwynedd Pevsner considers Hafotty "one of Anglesey's classic small medieval houses".[5] Peter Smith, in his Houses of the Welsh Countryside, categorises it as a three-unit hall house and notes that, despite its "relatively modest" size, it was still a "house of status".[12] Built to an H-plan, and constructed of rubble masonry, it is of two-storeys.[6] Dendrochronology from tree rings dates the beams in the extension to between 1509 and 1553.[2] The interior contains some notable medieval fittings, including fireplaces and window surrounds.[5] The fireplace has a Tudor arch and the inscription in Latin: Si deus nobiscum, quis contra nos ('If God is with us, who can be against us') which is a Bulkeley family motto. The arch also has carvings of the heads of a Saracen and a bull, another Bulkeley family motif.[2] Hafotty is a Grade I listed building[6] and a scheduled monument.[13]

• Emery, Anthony (2008). Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300–1500: East Anglia, Central England, and Wales. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521581318.
• Haslam, Richard; Orbach, Julian; Voelcker, Adam (2009). Gwynedd. The Buildings of Wales. New Haven, US and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-14169-6. OCLC 1023292902.
• Kovach, Warren (2017). Anglesey in 50 Buildings. Stroud, UK: Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-1445672564.
• Smith, Peter (1975). Houses of the Welsh Countryside. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. ISBN 0-11-700475-8. OCLC 868639211.

• Media related to Hafoty, Llansadwrn at Wikimedia Commons