Mona and Mona Isaf

Cadw's description

Location

The house is prominently sited, and set back slightly, from the SW side of the A5(T), with courtyard range to the rear; c2.5km NE of the church of St Cristiolus.

History

Early C19 coaching inn, built to serve travellers along the then newly constructed London to Holyhead road. The road between Shrewsbury and Holyhead had been surveyed by Thomas Telford in 1811, his scheme to build the new road accepted by Parliament in 1815, and work began on the Anglesey stretch in 1818. Mona Inn was built in connection with the construction of the road, and was the venue for the Anglesey Hunting Club meetings of 1822-3, but its success as an Inn was short-lived, possibly as an indirect result of the opening of the railway across the island in 1848 (the Britannia bridge opened in 1850); by 1851 Mona Inn had become Mona Farm. To the rear of the main house is a rectangular courtyard, leading through to a second courtyard beyond; neither range appears on the Tithe Map of the parish of 1842 (though this may have been an omission on the part of the surveyor), they are recorded on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map of Anglesey, 1887-8. The second courtyard is now derelict and some of the ranges converted into use as domestic dwellings. The main house and courtyard buildings were being renovated at the time of the survey (June 1998). Former service wing forms separate dwelling (Mona Isaf).

Exterior

Two-storey, 5-window range with cellars, originally built as an inn, with shorter, 2-storey, 3-window wing to right (NW) end (Mona Isaf); to the rear, and abutting the NW wing, is a U-shaped range of lofted stables and cartsheds around a large rectangular courtyard. The main house is built of local rubble masonry with rendered elevations (the rear elevation much weathered), the front and left return elevations with 1st floor sill band; roof of large thin slates with brick gable stacks, and a single brick stack to rear, to left (NW) of 3rd window in range. To the left (SE) is a single-storey lean-to, hidden from the road by a rubble wall, and to the rear is a half-glazed, modern gabled porch. The principal elevation faces the road to the NE, and has a central panelled door under a rectangular fanlight with radiating glazing bars. Windows are hornless sashes, ground floor 15-pane, 1st floor 12-pane; ground floor windows with slate sills. The left (SE) gable return has a single 1st floor window of 12-panes; the lean-to has a 12-pane sash and boarded door to the right (NE). The rear of the house is much-weathered, the windows are 4-pane, horned sashes (probably late C19 replacements); to the left (NW) end is a square-headed opening to the brick vaulted cellars. The added wing to the NW end of the main house is a shorter, 2-storeyed wing of local rubble masonry; slate roof with brick gable stack at right (NW) end and ridge stack offset to left (SE) end. A 3-window range with central doorway, the wing has been extensively renovated and few of the original hornless sash windows remain; the building is now semi-derelict.

Interior

The main house has the principal rooms to the front, the ground floor rooms to either side of a central hallway with axial corridor to rear; most of which retains the original stone flagged floor. A dog-leg staircase with clasping handrail on stick balusters leads to the first floor axial landing; a second staircase (to the NW end of the house) was removed in the mid C20. Most of the principal rooms retain panelled shutters and dado rails; and many of the bedrooms retain small cast-iron fireplaces.

Reason for designation

Listed as a exceptional example of an early C19 coaching inn (with associated courtyard range to rear), of historical interest for its association with the building of the London to Holyhead road, designed by Thomas Telford. The house has the appearance of a small gentry house of the period and retains much of its original character, and many original features such as the hornless sash windows (with panelled shutters), door and fanlight, and stone flag floor.