{{Short description|Mansion on Anglesey, Wales}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox Historic building |name = Bodorgan Hall |image = Bodorgan House - geograph.org.uk - 430328.jpg |caption = Bodorgan House |pushpin_map = Wales Anglesey |coordinates = {{coord|53|10|44|N|4|25|0|W|display=inline}} |location = Bodorgan, Anglesey, Wales |architect = John Cooper |client = |engineer = |construction_start_date = 1779 |completion_date = 1782 |demolished_date = |cost = |structural_system = |architectural_style = Neo-classical |size = |website = https://bodorgan.com/ }} '''Bodorgan Hall''' is a country house and estate located in the hamlet of Bodorgan, Anglesey, Wales, situated near the Irish Sea in the southwestern part of the island. The hall is the seat of the Meyricks,<ref name="Genealogy of the Merrick-Mirick-Myrick family of Massachusetts, 1636-1902">{{cite book|title=Genealogy of the Merrick-Mirick-Myrick family of Massachusetts, 1636–1902|url=https://archive.org/details/genealogymerric00merrgoog|accessdate=18 June 2012|edition=Public domain|year=1902|publisher=Tracy, Gibbs & Co.|pages=[https://archive.org/details/genealogymerric00merrgoog/page/n116 96]–}}</ref> and is the largest estate on Anglesey.<ref name="anglesey.info">{{cite web|url=http://www.anglesey.info/Anglesey%60s_Historical_Houses.htm|title=The Historic Houses and Manor Houses of Anglesey|work=anglesey.info|accessdate=19 June 2012|archive-date=14 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180314050143/http://www.anglesey.info/Anglesey%60s_Historical_Houses.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> The hall is the home of Sir George Meyrick and his wife, Candida Tapps Gervis Meyrick.
The house is a Grade II* listed building, and various other structures on the estate, such as a dovecote and a barn are listed at Grade II. The parkland is listed, jointly with the Bodowen Estate, as Grade II* on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales. It is also an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and an Environmentally Sensitive Area on the Malltraeth estuary.<ref name="Cadw">{{cite web|url=http://www.coflein.gov.uk/pdf/CPG044/|title=BODORGAN|publisher=Coflein:Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales|accessdate=19 June 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304062144/http://www.coflein.gov.uk/pdf/CPG044/|archive-date=2016-03-04|url-status=dead}}</ref> The estate contains woodland, terraced and walled kitchen gardens, a large circular dovecote, a lawn and a deer park. The house was completed between 1779 and 1782, and significant additions were made in the mid-nineteenth century.<ref name="Cadw"/>
==History== thumb|upright=1.23|left|The Front Lodge of Bodorgan Hall Bodorgan has existed for over a thousand years. During the medieval period, it was an estate belonging to the bishops of Bangor.<ref name="Cadw"/> Probably at the time Rowland Meyrick was Bishop of Bangor (1559–66), the estate became demesne land of the Meyrick family, one of the most powerful families on Anglesey. A Tudor mansion was built with sprawling gardens, which can be seen on an estate map drawn by Lewis Morris in 1724.<ref name="Cadw"/> This building was demolished in 1779 to make way for a new house, outbuildings and a poultry court, designed by the architect John Cooper for Owen Putland Meyrick and built in 1779–82.<ref name="Cadw"/> The design shows some similarities to Baron Hill House in Beaumaris, Anglesey, in which Cooper had been employed as an assistant to Samuel Wyatt, working for Lord Bulkeley.<ref name="Cadw"/>
Owen Fuller Meyrick inherited Bodorgan Hall in 1825 and made extensive changes to the driveway and gardens, and moved the entrance to the north of the house instead of the east.<ref name="Cadw"/> He was responsible for building the porch and forecourt before his death in 1876.
In October 1926, Anglesey's first record of the lesser spotted woodpecker was reported at Bodorgan Hall.<ref name="LovegroveWilliams2010">{{cite book|last1=Lovegrove|first1=Roger|last2=Williams|first2=Iolo|last3=Williams|first3=Graham|title=Birds in Wales|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K_j2MNYtu6YC&pg=PA241|accessdate=18 June 2012|date=30 October 2010|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-1-4081-3790-1|pages=241–}}</ref>
Prince William and Catherine (then-Duke and Duchess of Cambridge) lived in a four-bedroom cottage on the estate from 2010 to 2013, paying £750 per month in rent.<ref>{{cite news |title=First look inside the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's Anglesey home |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/prince-william/10328491/First-look-inside-the-Duke-and-Duchess-of-Cambridges-Anglesey-home.html |access-date=24 December 2020 |publisher=The Telegraph |date=23 September 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Prince William and Kate revisit former home of Anglesey |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-48200225 |access-date=24 December 2020 |agency=BBC |date=8 May 2019}}</ref> Their son, Prince George (b. July 2013), spent his first months on the estate.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Longmire |first1=Becca |title=Kate Middleton Admits She Felt ‘Isolated’ Living In Wales When Prince George Was A Baby |url=https://etcanada.com/news/578911/kate-middleton-admits-she-felt-isolated-living-in-wales-when-prince-george-was-a-baby/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226020034/https://etcanada.com/news/578911/kate-middleton-admits-she-felt-isolated-living-in-wales-when-prince-george-was-a-baby/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=26 February 2021 |website=ET Canada |access-date=24 December 2020 |quote=It was the first year and I’d just had George — William was still working with Search and Rescue — and we came up here and I had a tiny, tiny baby in the middle of Anglesey..}}</ref>
Today, the hall is the home of Sir George Meyrick and his wife, Lady Candida Tapps Gervis Meyrick.
==Architecture== thumb|upright=1.3|right|The Back Lodge of Bodorgan Hall Bodorgan is a neo-classical mansion, "built of smooth ashlar masonry in a pale, yellowish stone, with a slate roof."<ref name="Cadw"/> The entrance to the house is on the north front, which has a portico in the centre. The tops of two doors of the facade are adorned with bas-reliefs and there are half-columns and four alcoves along this side.<ref name="Cadw"/> The east front of the house has nine bays, with three in the centre "on a semi-circular bow with a domed roof."<ref name="Cadw"/> The north and south sides have single-storey wings, added in the mid 19th century, and are of a lesser quality.<ref name="Cadw"/> An aviary was once located in the southern extension, which now has "two open-fronted loggias".<ref name="Cadw"/> The house is Grade II* listed.<ref>{{NHAW|num=5502|desc=Bodorgan|grade=II*|access-date=15 February 2023}}</ref>
The terraces of the estate date to the late 1840s. In 1922 the kitchen gardens covered an area of more than three and a half acres but have since been reduced to about two acres.<ref name="Cadw"/> The kitchen gardens contain numerous glasshouses, sheds and walls, largely attributed to the gardener of Bodorgan in the 1850s, Mr Ewing, and became quite famed at the time.<ref name="Chambers's Journal">{{cite book|title=Chambers's Journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WoRTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA111|accessdate=19 June 2012|year=1853|publisher=W. & R. Chambers|page=111}}</ref> An article in the ''Cottage Gardener'' in January 1854 described "two perpendicular glass walls {{convert|11|ft}} high, supported on pillars and about {{convert|20|in}} apart, with a glass roof" and that peaches, melons,<ref name="The Florist and pomologist">{{cite book|title=The Florist and Pomologist|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0W8hAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA189|accessdate=19 June 2012|date=1 January 1856|page=189}}</ref> nectarines, apricots and figs were grown in the garden.<ref name="Cadw"/><ref>''Cottage Gardener'', 26 January 1854, pp. 320–22</ref> Beyond the gardens is an orchard, the deer park and the Malltraeth estuary. The park is listed, jointly with the Bodowen Estate, as Grade II* on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.<ref>{{NHAW|uid=172|num=PGW(Gd)44(ANG)|desc=Bodowen and Bodorgan|class=HPG|access-date=6 February 2023}}</ref>
The estate contains a number of old barns and outer buildings. To the north of the house is a stable yard, in front of the coach house, dated to around 1841.<ref name="Cadw"/> A barn situated on the west side of the yard has been converted into a modern office.<ref name="Cadw"/><ref name="Gardeners chronicle & gardening illustrated">{{cite book|title=Gardeners chronicle & gardening illustrated|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gEhQAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=19 June 2012|year=1962|publisher=Gardeners Chronicle Ltd.|page=346}}</ref> There are numerous carriage houses and sheds surrounding this.
==References== {{Reflist|colwidth=33em}}
{{William, Prince of Wales}}
Category:Country houses in Anglesey Category:Houses completed in 1782 Category:Grade II* listed houses in Wales Category:Grade II* listed buildings in Anglesey Category:Registered historic parks and gardens in Anglesey Category:Bodorgan Category:1782 establishments in Wales