Victoria Cottages

Cadw's description

Location

Set at an angle to a junction along the A4080 Brynsiencyn Road, c.1km SW of the Llanfairpwll Toll House.

History

Built c1833 as a school house, on land provided by the Rev. Henry Rowlands of Plas Gwyn and with a donation of £80 from the Duchess of Kent on her visit to the Beaumaris Eisteddfod in 1832. Named after Queen Victoria who planted a tree in the grounds during one of her visits to the Island. Shown on the Tithe Map of 1844. In 1851 the school was merged with the Plas Newydd Charity School and then flourished until the establishment of a National School at Llanfairpwll in 1871, after which it was closed in 1872. The building was then converted into three cottages and has subsequently been altered again to form the two cottages of its present layout. Now owned by the Plas Newydd estate and probably re-modelled by the estate, the casement windows and octagonal stacks characteristic of the C19 re-modelling. 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. By 1780 the Bayly family owned a total of 100,000 acres (40,500 ha) in North Wales, Ireland, Devon and Cornwall, including much mineral wealth including the copper mine at Parys Mountain. The Plas Newydd estate passed to Henry William, Lord Uxbridge's eldest son, in 1812. Henry was created 1st Marquess of Anglesey in 1815, but chiefly lived at Beaudesert in Staffordshire. A number of improvements to the buildings of the estate followed the completion of the main house at Plas Newydd in the early C19. The estate is recorded as being 9,620 acres (3,896 ha) in size in 1873, including scattered lands and land around the mansion of Plas Newydd.

Reason for designation

In its overall form the building retains its early C19 character, its massing exploited to picturesque effect in later C19 remodelling to form a well-detailed group of estate cottages.