Talhenbont hall

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,[4][5] Sheriff of Caernarfonshire (1600). In 1642, during the English Civil War, the owner of the hall, William Lloyd (Sheriff of Caernarfonshire and Ann's second husband), was arrested as a Royalist sympathiser and the New Model Army seized the hall. Later the hall was used as headquarters for the Royalist army under Sir John Owen of Clenennau. Their son Richard Vaughan of Plas Hen was M.P. for Merioneth. In 1628, he married Owen's daughter. After successive family member owners until 1758, Plas Hen (Talhenbont), owned by the Vaughan family became the largest privately owned single piece of land in the Welsh area of Eifionydd, and was also the largest estate of multiple halls and surrounding countryside in different locations in North Wales.[3][6]

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.[1][4][7][8]

Plas Hen was later the home of William Williams. In 1845, the hall and surrounding land was purchased by the Ellis-Nanney family from the Moston baronets for £50,000 (equivalent to £5,300,000 in 2021). The hall became part of the Ellis-Nanney's estate of over 12,000 acres (5,000 ha). They renamed it Talhenbont hall. 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.[6][9][10][11]

The original 17th-century mansion was 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 parlor 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 mansion was also altered in the 18th century. It has details such as slate gabled roofs, fireplace, and tall chimney stacks, and the architect also included stone ovolo-mullioned windows throughout. Around the hall and wing is a plinth with an ogee molding. The other ogee is over the south door of the hall which has a Tudor arch with the initials WV, suggesting William Vaughan of Corsygedol, who built the hall originally in 1607. There is a large central gable in the wing and a visible difference where the terminal stack shows where the old hall and the new additions were merged. There are stone-bracketed eaves. To the east is a narrow wing that has been whitewashed with additions made to the hipped slate roof. And in the north front of the home is the modern coat of arms bearing the quarterly of Collwyn ap Tangno (5/15 Tribes of Wales), Osborn Wyddel (House of Corsygedol) and Ednyfed Fychan (Tudors of Penmynydd) sculpted in 1607.[3][14][15]

Coat of arms of Collwyn ap Tangno, Sable a chevron between three fleur de lis argent

FitzGerald coat of arms, used by FitzGerald-Osbourne family for Osbwrn Wyddel, Cors-y-gedol.

Coat of arms of the Tudors of Penmynydd, Arms: Gules a chevron between three helmets argent.

The coat of arms bears the family motto:[3]

Latin: Non Nobis Nati
We are not born for ourselves

As well as the hall, the 100-acre estate has outbuildings that have been converted into accommodation for use as part of the wedding venue.[6][12] The estate has grounds including woodland, a bridge, an aqueduct, a terrace and a fountain.[16] However, before conversion into rental accommodation, the estate's cottages were in the 1980s used for farming. There was an outbuilding that was used as a pigsty, a stable for horses with a round-headed doorway, and also a southeast-facing coach-house at the back of the house associated with the mansion. This was for the horse grooms' quarters, a single room with a chimney.[6][17][18][19]

• Davies, William Llywelyn. "Vaughan family of Corsygedol, in the parish of Llanddwywe, Meironnydd". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales.
• Williams, Philip Nanney (2016). Nannau – A Rich Tapestry of Welsh History. ISBN 978-0-9955337-0-7.