Site overview

Hen Dwr is a former windmill on the ridge above Llandudno, near the end of Nant-y-Gamar Road and south of Bodafon Hall. A windmill was built on the hill between 1617 and 1642, and a mill on the site of the present building is shown on a 1748 map by Lewis Morris. The site also appears as a windmill in an illustration in Pennant's Tour of Gloddaeth Hall.

By 1840 the building had become a dwelling known as the Old Windmill. The surviving structure is a two-storey tapering mill tower, pebbledashed and roofed with a pointed conical slate roof. The conical slate roof dates from about 1930, and the building was renovated and extended from the late 1970s.

Hen Dwr was listed at Grade II in 1951.

Map

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No site photograph is currently available. Images will be added as field visits are carried out.

History

Hen Dwr stands on a ridge above Llandudno, at the end of Nant-y-Gamar Road and about 500 metres south of Bodafon Hall. It is a former tower windmill, later adapted to domestic use, and retains the distinctive form of its mill tower.

The site has an early windmill history. A windmill was built on the hill between 1617 and 1642, and a mill on the site of the present building is apparently shown on a 1748 map by Lewis Morris. A windmill is also clearly shown at this site in the illustration in Pennant's Tour of Gloddaeth Hall. By 1840 the building was in domestic use as the Old Windmill, and the small two-storey extension probably belongs to that phase of conversion. Coflein records that by 1842 the Old Mill was a dwelling.

The former windmill tower survives as a two-storey tapering structure, pebbledashed externally and covered by a pointed conical slate roof with a brick chimney. The roof dates from about 1930. The tower has windows at two levels with modern glazing. A small two-storey extension in matching materials adjoins it, also with a brick chimney, while a larger late twentieth-century extension is attached but excluded from the listed description. The old tower retains two exposed beams on the ground floor and a single stop-chamfered beam on the upper floor.

The building was extensively renovated and modernised from the late twentieth century. It was designated as a Grade II listed building on 10 January 1951, notwithstanding later additions, as a picturesque structure with probably eighteenth-century origins.

Timeline

1617–1642

Early windmill built

A windmill was built on the hill between 1617 and 1642.
1748

Mill shown on map

A mill on the site of the present building was apparently shown on a 1748 map by Lewis Morris.
1840–1842

Converted to dwelling

By the early 1840s the former mill was in domestic use as the Old Windmill.
1930

Conical slate roof added

The pointed conical slate roof dates from about 1930.
1951

Listed building designation

Hen Dwr was designated as a Grade II listed building.
1970–1999

Late twentieth-century renovation

The former windmill dwelling was renovated, extended, and modernised from the late 1970s.

Sources and records

Cadw listed building record
Coflein / RCAHMW site record
Windmill World site entry
British Listed Buildings entry
Property listing