Talhenbont hall
Talhenbont hall () is a grade II listed building in a 100 acre (40 ha) estate in Gwynedd, Wales. Until it was renamed in the 19th or 20th century, the building was known as . The hall was once part of the former estates of the Vaughan of Corsygedol family. The Vaughan family residences were inherited through marriage to the Mostyn baronets in the 18th century. In 1845, the hall and estate were purchased by the Ellis-Nanney family. Nearby villages include Llanystumdwy to the southeast and Chwilog to the west. The hall was originally constructed in 1607 and was further expanded in the 18th and 19th centuries. As of 2016, Talhenbont's outbuildings were converted into vacation accommodations as part of a wedding venue for public use. The Vaughan () family of Talhenbont are descendants of one of the medieval Fifteen Tribes of Wales. The first century of the hall was turbulent because of the English Civil War. The Parliamentarian New Model Army seized the hall. Still, it was later taken by the opposite side, the Royalists under John Owen, who used it as his headquarters. Owen's daughter married into the Vaughan family of Talhenbont. The Vaughan estate was once part of the largest estate in North Wales, and the same family owned the current hall for over 200 years until it was sold in 1845. There have been several successive owners since; but from 1978, the hall has been owned and operated by the Good family. Plas Hen family beginnings
The family of Plas Hen (today named Talhenbont) descended from  (c.1000 – 1050), Lord of Ardudwy and Eifionydd, founder of the 5th of the Fifteen Tribes of Wales, . Around 1416, the family settled in the area. Madog ap Ifan ap Einion of Ystumllyn, Criccieth, grandson of Ynyr Fychan (Lord of Nannau) married the daughter of Rhys ap Tudur (Tudors of Penmynydd). Madog's grandson married an heiress of Trefan, and the property with Plas Hen (Talhenbont) was passed from Gruffydd ap John ap Grono to their son Gruffudd ap Robert Fychan (Vaughan), and he married Elizabeth of Ystumcegid and had a big family . The property then passed to Robert Vaughan, Fychan's grandson, and it was inherited by Robert's brother Richard (Sheriff of Caernarvonshire, 1600) of the Vaughan of Corsygedol (Cors-Y-Gedol) family. Plas Hen hall ownership

Vaughan of Corsygedol
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, 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. Mostyn baronets
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. Ellis-Nanney baronets
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 (). 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. Talhenbont hall (renamed)
Talhenbont is surrounded by 100 acres of countryside. The current owners, the Good family, purchased the estate in . Paul Good has owned the Talhenbont wedding venue since 2016. The hall is also operated as a holiday centre. In 2011, it was the subject of an episode of the BBC 1 Hidden Houses series, presented by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. The hall today
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. 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. Also, there are stone-bracketed eaves. To the east is a narrow wing that has been whitewashed with additions made to the hipped slate roof. Around the hall and wing is a plinth with an ogee molding. Another ogee is over the original doorway on the south west of the house, it is of a Tudor arch with their family coat of arms above the door. The sculpted stone square tablet is inscribed with; initials WV, suggesting William Vaughan of Corsygedol, and the date of the halls's construction in 1607. Then the quarterly of Collwyn ap Tangno (5/15 Tribes of Wales), Osborn Wyddel (House of Corsygedol), King Llywelyn the Great's arms of four lions (House of Aberffraw), and Ednyfed Fychan (Tudors of Penmynydd) with the initials AV, presumably Ann Vaughan of Plas Hen. The coat of arms on the north front bears the family motto:

Estate gardens and outbuildings
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. The estate has grounds including woodland, a bridge, an aqueduct, a terrace and a fountain. 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. References

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Grade II listed buildings in Gwynedd
Houses completed in 1607
Houses in Gwynedd