Sat in the Eglwysbach Conwy Valley in North Wales the structure of Bodnant was built by Colonel Forbes between 1770 and 1821, and the late Georgian house was bought in January 1875 by Henry Pochin, a wealthy industrial chemist and china clay magnate from Lancashire. He progressively rebuilt the house from 1875-6 in Old English style, refaced with hard blue local stone and using Talacre sandstone for window dressings and quoins whilst replacing the sash windows with stone mullions and casements, and went on to begin cultivating the extensive botanical gardens that are world famous today. Bodnant House eventually became home of the late Lord Aberconway, and members of his family continue to be actively involved in the management of the garden, its tea pavilion and surrounding estate on behalf of the National Trust. The house now remains under the private ownership of the Mclaren family, but isn't lived in permanently.

Within the garden itself, originally built in 1730 as a gazebo at Woodchester, Gloucestershire, and later used as a pin mill and later still as a tannery, the Pin Mill building was moved to Bodnant gardens and reconstructed in 1938/9 as a pavilion at the south end of the canal terrace. The coat of arms on the building is of the family Surman (Shurmer) whose connection with the building is still a mystery. On the central pier of the eastern pavilion arcade is a dedication inscription with the date 1939, in raised characters: 'C and H A, 1939' (for Christabel and Henry Aberconway).