Plas Newydd

Plas Newydd

This is a 3-storey structure with an attic, arranged in a rectangular plan of 4 bays and aligned roughly north-west to south-east. It may incorporate an earlier building within its fabric. The house features a 2-storey porch projection on the north-east (entrance) front and a similar but wider staircase projection on the south-west side.

The walls are constructed of irregularly coursed rubblestone with buttered pointing, with portions formerly rendered. Outlines of former roof pitches remain visible on the gable ends. The roofs are slate with stone-coped verges.

On the north-east elevation, a tall gabled porch rises roughly to the centre, with a room above the entrance containing 3-light wooden mullioned and transomed leaded windows to the front and returns, and a Gothic-headed doorway (both renewed around 1900). A stone water butt adjoins the porch to the right. A massive projecting lateral chimney stands immediately to the left, with a tall shaft rising to the top. The small space between the chimney and porch is infilled on the ground floor with a cloakroom. Cross-windows occupy the far left and right on the ground floor, with 3-light windows repeated on the first and second floors. The second floor contains a further 3-light mullioned and transomed window above and to the left of the porch roof; those on the second floor are all of reduced proportions.

The north-west gable end has similar fenestration: a cross-window to the right on the ground floor, two 3-light mullioned and transomed windows on the first floor, centrally placed cross-windows on the second floor and attic (the attic window of reduced proportions), and a 3-light window to the ground and first floors. Both gables have integral end stacks.

The south-east gable end displays a 3-light window to the ground and first floors and a small cross-window to the attic.

The south-west elevation is the most regularly composed, with three 3-light mullioned and transomed windows on each floor, distributed one tier to the left and two to the right of the staircase projection and chimney, although several windows are of different sizes (the lower left window is in fact a cross-window). A lead rainwater head dated 1632 is affixed to the downpipe between the two right tiers of windows. The gabled staircase projection has 3-light mullioned and transomed windows to its front and right return. Below the front window is a tall narrow lean-to (circa 1900) with 2 cross-windows at the front and a pointed doorway to the left, approached by contemporary straight flight of steps. A prominent lateral stack stands immediately to the left of the staircase projection, similar to that on the north-east elevation but flush with the main wall.

Virtually all windows in the house were renewed around 1900.

Interior

The interior was extensively remodelled around 1900 because the house had fallen into a ruinous state by the end of the 19th century. All ceilings, floors, beams and roof structure are renewed, with the exception of the collar-beam truss and chamfered purlins above the restored oak staircase. The hall was stone flagged until 1991. All internal partitions date from around 1900 except for a fragment of plank and muntin partitioning adjacent to the staircase on the ground floor.

A single large room on the first floor has panelling of around 1900 and contains two fireplaces. The south-west fireplace bears a carved emblem of the semi-mythical 10th-century warrior Cilmin Troedd Ddu and the date 1637. His arms appear again in a plaster shield on the second floor, accompanied by the initials TG and the date 1632. Thomas Glynne claimed descent from Cilmin Troedd Ddu. The room containing the shield and the landings on both the first and second floors retain reused 17th-century panelling, some of which features foliated patterns in semi-circles.