Cattle weigh-house at Bodorgan home farm

Cadw's description

Location

Incorporated within the curtilage wall to the W of the main courtyard of Bodorgan home farm.

History

Mid C19 cattle-weigh house. Bodorgan was one of a number of townships from which the Bishop of Bangor derived his income, and is first recorded in 1306. The estate forms the Anglesey seat of the Meyrick family, whose ancestors were tenants from late C14, the surname first documented in 1537. The estate expanded from the early C18 onwards, and by late C19 was the largest on the island. The cattle weigh-house is one of the later buildings to have been constructed at the home farm, and is shown on the Tithe map of 1843. Re-furbished late C19 (1892 graffito carved into internal wall plaster). The building was used to house weighing equipment for cattle. There was formerly a narrow pit in front of the building which contained the platform on which the cattle stood.

Exterior

Small single storey building; rubble walls, gritstone dressings and single-pitch slate roof. Abutting either side are the farm curtilage walls, that to the right (N) appearing to merge with the weigh-house wall, suggesting that the weigh-house was built, in part, out of the existing wall. To left (S) is a narrow square-headed doorway; barred window to R with thin slate lintel. There is an infilled pit in front of the building.

Interior

Single room with plastered walls. Unusually heavy boarded door with double thickness of boards, those to the outside being vertical, and those inside horizontal. There is a pit at the N end containing fragments of the weighing machine, which was connected underground to the pit outside.

Reason for designation

Listed as a substantially complete cattle weigh-house, an unusual and rare survivor of the self-sufficient estate. Also for group value with the other buildings of the Bodorgan home farm, which together form part of an unusually comprehensive estate centre.