Plas Berw with courtyard and walls

Plas Berw with Courtyard and Walls

A 17th-century gentry house of two storeys with attics, rectangular in plan, with a western stair turret. The main structure is built of local rubble, predominantly gritstone, with sandstone dressings. Massive quoins mark the angles, and the principal eastern elevation features a bevelled plinth below the ground floor windows. The roof is laid with small slates and stone copings; the main structure has stone gable stacks, whilst the additions to the south and east have brick gable stacks. The building has been enlarged by several additions: a two-storey kitchen wing to the left (south) end, a lean-to extension to the rear (west), and a single-storey wing set at right angles to the rear, abutting the western stair turret.

The principal eastern elevation overlooks an enclosed courtyard (now a garden) and consists of a five-window range of three-light transomed and mullioned windows with leaded panes. The entrance is through a square-headed doorway offset to the south end, with a plain stone lintel and chamfered jambs. Above the entrance is a stone panel bearing the Holland coat of arms, the date 1615, the initials T. H. (Thomas Holland), and the motto "DEUS SOLA FORTITUDO MEA EST". Above each opening is a weathered, moulded hoodmould. Set in the roof above the first, third and fifth windows are hipped dormers with small-paned, side-hung casement windows. The northern gable of the main part has a twelve-pane first floor sash window and a nine-pane window in the attic, both with hoodmoulds. The fenestration to the rear and sides is scattered; most windows have been replaced with modern sashes and casements, though the western stair turret retains original 17th-century surrounds, some with hoodmoulds. The additions have slate-faced lintels and sills. The lean-to extension has a gabled dormer to the north side and an entrance through a square-headed doorway to the south; between the windows is a re-set slate plaque bearing the date 1608 and initials E: H. The western wing has a plinth along the north wall and a re-set doorway with chamfered surround in the south wall, now partly blocked with rubble in the lower half with a modern window in the upper part. The southern kitchen wing is a two-storey, two-window range with a slate roof, brick gable stack and copings, with a doorway to the north with a brick lintel and small-paned casement windows; to the east are steps leading up to a plank door at the south end.

To the front (east) of the main house is an enclosed courtyard with a north wall built of rubble and a roughly embattled parapet, stepped up over a segmental arch containing a gateway with chamfered jambs. Above the arch on the north side of the wall is a shield bearing a lion rampant and the initials T. E. The south wall of the courtyard incorporates parts of the remains of the old house; at the western end is the original segmental-headed doorway to the screens. East of the doorway is the hall window, a rectangular frame with hoodmould, containing the remains of three cinquefoil lights, now blocked. East of the hall window is the head and pointed pediment of an early 17th-century window inserted by Thomas Holland, whose initials appear in the tympanum.

The building is a three-unit house with a western stair tower, now divided into two separate dwellings. The hall, parlour and western tower, with later additions, form one dwelling at the north end, whilst the kitchen and later southern wing form the second.

The entrance leads into the central hall containing a massive chamfered beam. At the north end is a shield-shaped corbel bearing the initials O I H of Owen Holland, nephew of Sir Thomas, and his wife Jane. The hallway contains re-set 17th-century panelling, including pieces with an intertwining acanthus leaf pattern set as a frieze at the top of the walls and also below the window seats. The doorway to the courtyard is large with a moulded surround and stressed keystone; other doors are panelled. To the right (north) is the parlour with a gritstone fireplace at the eastern end of the north wall. The fireplace sides are formed by large gritstone piers supporting rounded corbels, each with chamfered inner angles, supporting a massive gritstone bressumer. In the eastern wall is a 17th-century window surround, the window blocked when the lean-to extension was built; a round-headed arch with stressed, fluted keystone, decorated with an inner running bead design and an outer egg and dart pattern, supported on fluted pilasters with floriate mouldings in the outer angles above the arch. The stair tower contains a reconstructed oak dog-leg staircase with a clasping handrail and simple turned balusters. The roof is said by the Royal Commission to be original, with re-used purlins; some parts of the walls of the upper rooms have been exposed to show the original wattle and daub construction.