Plas Brondanw

Plas Brondanw

Large L-plan house of roughly-dressed local rubble with small-slate roofs and coped gable parapets. The main block is three storeys tall with a further basement storey on the garden side, creating a four-storey aspect from that side. A subsidiary two-storey wing adjoins at right-angles to the southeast. The main section features a wide end-chimney to the left (northeast) and a wide gabled lateral chimney to the rear.

The five-bay principal garden front includes a central projecting tower. The tower's upper stage has a moulded cill course returned onto the sides, with a feathered roof and stone acorn finial, the eaves gently feathered. Three semi-circular steps lead from the garden to a central open arch at ground-floor level; the sides are also open and arched, giving onto a paved terrace walk on either side. Applied eagle cartouches decorate the keystones (reconstituted stone), bearing the CWE monogram for Clough Williams-Ellis. The ground and first floors have 12-pane near-flush sash windows; the first-floor tower window sits within a shallow arched recess. The basement has squatter 12-pane windows with a central entrance within the tower, and the upper floor has 6-pane sashes.

The primary entrance to the southeast (rear) at the right features fine and unusually-long slatestone quoins and similar voussoirs to a slightly-arched head, with a returned slate label whose returns are conceived as shaped brackets. A small-pane glazed 20th-century door marks the entrance. To the right stands a tall 8-pane window, and to the far left (beyond the lateral chimney) a 6-pane window. The third floor has further 6- and 12-pane windows with an inset 17th-century cast-iron fireback to the breast and a slate plaque (possibly relocated) inscribed with the date 1696 and the initials W.W.M. Evidence of the raising of this block, probably in the later 18th century, can be seen between the first and second floors.

The southwest gable apex is flat-topped and surmounted by a metal eagle sculpture. Below lies a semi-circular window with a 6-pane sash beneath. A simple Venetian window adorns the first floor with an inset slate plaque above inscribed 'W. 1660'. A 12-pane sash occupies the ground floor; all openings are 20th-century alterations.

The lower wing has an entrance on the main southwest side with a small-pane glazed door. Flanking it are 16-pane and 12-pane sash windows to the left and right respectively, with further 12-pane sashes to the far right and first floor. A central two-stage stack, originally an end chimney before the wing's extension to the southeast, sits between them. A flagged service court to the northeast separates the house from Plas Brondanw Cottages, with irregular fenestration on this side featuring 6- and 12-pane windows. A French window entrance to the centre has a single-storey canted bay to the left and an arched small-pane window nearby. Adjacent is a long flight of stone steps rising from the courtyard to road level where an arch stepped-up within a rubble parapet wall opens with a part-latticed gate. Crossing via an arched, parapetted bridge provides upper access from the road to an attic flat in the main block. The bridge and path have partly-cobbled and partly slated floors, leading to a balustraded roof walk giving access to an arched loggia with a shallow hipped roof. This has an inner entrance with window to the left.

The entrance hall features a wide, segmentally-arched fireplace to the end wall with simple panelled reveals and a plain slate mantelpiece to a 20th-century inner fireplace. The ceiling is beamed with re-used or re-set run-out stop-chamfered joists; the floor is parquet. Raised and fielded panelled reveals flank the window. A stepped-up recess to one end contains an inset circular marble floor. Two service rooms lie beyond the stack. An arched 6-panel door leads to the stair hall with a slate floor. A half-turn staircase features slate steps and oak turned balusters with brass ball finials and a metal handrail. Off the stair hall is a flagged kitchen with a further door back to the entrance hall. Within it, a fine 18th-century classical wooden cornice (brought in) acts as a canopy for a range, supported by scrolled brackets with egg-and-dart moulding and dentilations. The rear water closet has a counter-changed black and white marble floor behind the stair. An arched opening off the stair hall leads to a further hall with a sitting room to the left, featuring a lugged classical architrave and 6-panel door (all brought in by Clough Williams-Ellis). The hall has a wooden boarded floor and a wooden acanthus frieze. A flight of slate steps descends from this to the basement, fitted with a re-used 17th-century turned balustrade and oak handrail; the plain newel has a brass ball finial as before. A stepped-up, balustraded landing with similar though different re-used balusters and plain-capped newels follows. A small, parquet-floored room in the tower projection opens from this, with a 6-panel oak door. The sitting room has a simple plaster cornice carried onto the main axial beam. Raised and fielded panelling sections adorn the main wall spaces and window reveals. A classical wooden fireplace features a shouldered frieze with a dentilated cornice and supporting consoles. Above, decorative foliate carving adorns a raised and fielded overmantel with scrolled volute sides. A fine modillion frieze in partly-gilded wood surmounts the gable window, flanked by fluted pilasters.

The first floor features a wrought-iron Regency balustrade at the stairhead with conjoined oval decoration and bronze foliate plaques topped with urn finials. A cast-iron sun-ray light mount adorns the ceiling. Fluted oak pilasters of the late 17th or early 18th century adorn the walls at the stairhead and flank a counter-changed black and white marble pavement leading from the stair to the drawing room. This room has a lugged classical doorcase with masks and swags above and an 8-panel raised and fielded 18th-century door (all brought in). A 6-panel egg-and-dart moulded door leads to plain bedrooms and a bathroom. A further bathroom opens off the stairhead with a raised and fielded 2-panel late 17th-century door. A simple classical fireplace of pine adorns the front bedroom, with a moulded and dentilated cornice; modern oak floors run throughout.