Plas Gwyn

Plas Gwyn

Mid-18th century brick-built mansion of three storeys with a cellar. The shallow hipped slate roof carries tall, slender rendered rectangular chimneys with capping.

The entrance front faces north and comprises a symmetrical range of seven windows. The central three bays are advanced and pedimented, with a moulded cornice that continues across the north and east elevations. The central entrance is set between engaged Doric columns supporting an entablature with triglyph frieze and pediment. The original door has decorated lower panels and panelled jambs. Windows on the ground and first floors are 12-pane hornless sashes; second floor windows have 6 panes. All windows have flat brick heads and stone sills.

The east elevation is also a seven-window range with moulded eaves cornice. The three central bays advance as a full-height canted bay. Windows match the entrance front except the ground floor, which has tall three and six-pane casements.

The west side has rendered elevations with ashlar scoring and comprises two parallel wings arranged around a central courtyard, now occupied by a ground floor glazed conservatory. The recessed west wall contains a first floor Venetian window lighting the staircase, a second floor six-pane hornless sash, and a tall six-pane light between the two floors to the right.

The south wall is rendered with five windows across the range; the second window from left is blank. The southernmost window, to the right of a lean-to addition, is a later widening of an original window with eight panes at ground floor level. Boarded doors and a small paned light giving access to the cellars are positioned to the right of the range. A 19th-century lean-to addition occupies the left side, with two large six-pane lights along the south wall, rooflights aligned above, and entry via a boarded door in the east wall.

The interior was not inspected during the survey, but is documented in detail in the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales Inventory of Anglesey as follows:

The hall contains original doorways to flanking rooms with moulded architraves and pointed pediments, a style characteristic of earlier 18th-century work. The doorway to the staircase-hall has a segmental arch with keystone, panelled pilasters and fanlight. A similar doorway leads from the stair-hall to the kitchen. The hall fireplace has a simple moulded architrave and panel above, with a plain ceiling featuring a moulded plaster cornice.

The library has a panelled dado, moulded and enriched cornice, and an original fireplace with fluted pilasters supporting a broken pediment above the mantel.

The drawing room, originally two separate rooms, was converted into one in the 19th century through the insertion of two arches in the dividing wall. The north portion has walls with panelled dado and enriched plaster cornice, with a cornice and broken scroll pediment featuring egg-and-tongue enrichment. The south portion was redecorated in the early 19th century. A six-panelled door is original to this room.

The dining room has wood-panelled walls and a moulded cornice with mutules and egg-and-tongue ornament. The fireplace is flanked by fluted Ionic pilasters standing on pedestals, with frieze only above.

The staircase features slender turned balusters and a moulded mahogany handrail, lit from the courtyard by a Venetian window with Ionic pilasters, moulded cornices and architraves. At the stair head is a screen to the passage with slender Doric columns and segmental arch. The landing has a moulded cornice.

Bedroom doorways have moulded architraves and six-panelled doors. The bedrooms on both floors generally retain original details including cornices and fireplaces. The bedroom over the entrance hall retains its original cast-iron hob grate.