Detached Accommodation Block at Plas Menai

The accommodation block at Plas Menai consists of nine houses with associated stores arranged around courtyards, designed to provide shelter on the exposed site and to resemble a traditional farmstead layout. The architectural style is similar to that of the main centre, featuring a variety of forms and materials. The composition includes a main enclosed courtyard to the northeast, with the southwest range partially enclosing a sheltered open space to the south. In the main courtyard, the former principal’s house is located at the northeast corner, while former staff houses form the southeast and southwest ranges. The northwest side of the courtyard is enclosed by a range of stores, with additional stores and a garage wrapping around the southwest corner of the complex.

The walls are roughcast, with some slate cladding on the upper floors, particularly on the south-facing elevations. The roofs are made of Welsh slate, often with strong overhangs that contribute to the picturesque appearance, featuring varied forms such as hipped and lean-to designs. The joinery details are dark, consistent with the main centre. Natural stone retaining walls and boundary walls create subsidiary enclosed spaces within the main courtyard.

The overall design is characterized by varied massing and staggered lines, alternating between two-storeyed residential blocks and single-storeyed ancillary buildings in the main southeast range. The former principal’s house is a complex structure, featuring an external stair between a lower gable and a stone retaining wall, sheltered by the overhanging roof on the northwest side, and a distinctive angled stone chimney nestled between the roof slopes of two blocks. Other domestic ranges are simpler in form, but the entire composition is unified through a consistent use of materials, forms, and details, including dark timber windows (some of which have been replaced) with externally expressed mullions.

Where original layouts remain, they are very simple. 21st-century alterations related to refurbishment and changes of use for houses 1, 2, 3, and 7 are not considered of special interest.