Plas Hen

Plas Hen is a large L-shaped building of one-and-a-half storeys, constructed of rubble with an old, steep slated roof. It combines a Medieval core with significant early 20th-century extensions and alterations.

The primary north-facing garden front comprises six bays with a deeply-recessed entrance at bay 3, stepped up slightly, featuring a 20th-century 15-pane glazed door. Slightly-recessed 16-pane casements light the ground and first floors. The upper storey windows are contained within unusually large rubble dormers with hipped roofs and slate-hung sides, retaining some external render. Bays 5 and 6 are set back and raised above a basement, which contains a plain-glazed light to the far bay and a boarded door to the west gable. A first-floor corbelled balcony with French windows and plain iron balustrade projects from the west gable, beneath which is inscribed the date 1921 with the initials HMR, with a further modern window above.

The rear elevation features two gabled, rendered projections. The left projection is a stair with an adjoining stepped lateral chimney, while the right contains an earlier lateral chimney; both have moulded capping. The left projection has a small 4-pane casement. An oversailing roof forms a canopy porch over a rear entrance with a glazed door matching the front, a 20th-century 4-pane window in an angled brick wall, and a slate-hung flat-roofed dormer above with a tripartite 6-pane casement.

To the southeast, an early 20th-century one-and-a-half storey wing forms the east range of the L-shaped plan. It features first-floor French windows in a shallow hipped-roofed dormer opening onto a small slate balcony carried on shaped corbels with plain iron balustrade. A small 8-pane casement and a 12-pane window in a hipped dormer flank this, with a modern ground-floor window.

Adjoining at right-angles and enclosing a small court on the south side is a single-storey service block of rubble with a gable parapet and kneelers to the west gable. Weather-coursing marks its junction with the east range. An open lobby to the left contains three boarded doors, and the gable features an oculus with a 4-pane fixed light. Immediately to the southwest, connected by a short stretch of rubble walling, stands a single-storey boiler house with a mono-pitched slate roof to its east section and a flat corrugated-asbestos roof to the west. It has a stable door with a 4-pane window and a squat chimney with capping and weather-coursing.

The enclosed court is slate-flagged with dwarf walls and stepped access to the downhill west side. A small circular building stands to the north.

Later end chimneys with weather-coursing and further rear chimneys, including lateral stacks, are scattered throughout.

The interior retains significant Medieval fabric. Of the Medieval house, only the two western bays survive, formerly the parlour and upper solar. The upper solar contains a fine collar truss with trefoil and quatrefoil decoration, suggesting a late 15th-century date. Below, in the former parlour, moulded wall beams survive in a compartmented cellar access created in the 18th century and relate to the Medieval phase. The main range walls reach up to 4 feet in thickness.

The hall dates to circa 1700 and is panelled with large-field panels and moulded edges. A contemporary bolection-moulded fireplace addresses the 16th-century lateral chimney, fitted with a moulded mantel shelf and panelled overmantel. Two contemporary 2-panel doors with moulded architraves are present. To the right of the fireplace, steps lead up to a boarded door opening onto a corkscrew stair. A mid-to-late 16th-century post-and-panel screen lines the right wall of the hall.

The parlour beyond contains 18th-century panelled window plays and a moulded plaster cornice. A chamfered cross-beam, probably of the third quarter of the 16th century, is plastered over. A mid-18th-century 6-panel raised-and-fielded door opens off the hall to the east.