Plas Ucha

Plas Ucha is a long single-storey range with an attic at the east end, constructed of random stone on boulder footings beneath a slate roof with raised stone copings and kneelers. A stone end stack rises from the west gable, beneath which is a small lean-to structure. The building faces south.

The south front contains two cyclopean doorways with boarded doors at the centre and right, the latter leading to the kitchen. The doorways have segmental-arched heads with hollow mouldings, supported on springers and moulded monolithic jambs. Between the doorways is a small two-light casement with timber lintel, surmounted by a skylight to the roof pitch. To the left is a tall two-light casement with stone lintel, probably inserted in the late twentieth century, and further left a three-light casement also with stone lintel, which likely replaces a pre-glazing mullioned window with a wider original opening. Most windows are renewed wooden casements with iron glazing, their original openings marked by timber lintels.

The east gable was largely rebuilt in the late twentieth century and has a three-light casement to each storey, the ground-floor light offset slightly to the left. The north side features a cyclopean doorway with boarded door at the centre, leading into the cross-passage. To its left are two three-light casements with stone lintels, and immediately to the right a two-light casement. Further right is a wide pre-glazing mullioned window with a fine moulded wooden frame; the four timber mullions and sill were replaced during restoration. The lean-to at the west end has boarded doors to each side and a small west window.

Interior arrangement comprises a two-bay hall open to the roof, divided by cruck trusses. Each bay is further subdivided: the western bay by a collar truss, and the eastern bay by a fine box-framed aisle-truss which formed an open screen to the cross-passage. Each truss has a collar supporting a King-post attached to the ridge beam, with two rows of raked, trenched purlins and cusped windbraces. Some timbers, particularly the aisle-posts, are decorated with quarter-mouldings. Between the north aisle-post and north wall is some post-and-panel infill. The western bay contains a louvre truss for ventilating the original open hearth. The hall has a flagstone floor.

A new masonry wall was inserted into the west end of the hall in the sixteenth to seventeenth century, containing a large fireplace with substantial timber lintel bearing a shallow chamfer. To the rear of the left reveal is a bakeoven with segmental brick head and two small shelves to the rear of the right reveal. Above the fireplace is a beam associated with the former attic floor, which once held a smaller fireplace, now infilled, with timber lintel. An original window opening on the west end of the north wall may once have continued to the fireplace wall, with a probably contemporary opening on the opposite south side. The central truss has been cut on the south side by an inserted window.

The cross-passage is separated from the hall on its east side by a partition wall beneath the cruck-truss. The wall has a floor beam above which the partition is close-studded. Beneath is a boarded door to the left leading to the outer rooms, now a living room and kitchen. The living room is plastered and ceiled, with two spine beams to the ceiling, the northern beam stop-chamfered. A late twentieth-century boarded staircase occupies the northeast angle. An original splayed window opening with timber lintel is set in the south wall. A partition wall to the east contains a central boarded door opening into the kitchen, now modernised; during restoration, smoke blackening was found here suggesting an original open hearth.

The attic storey contains two bedrooms. That above the living room has two small lights in the close-studded partition, allowing a view into the hall. The lower purlins have been replaced, but the upper purlins and wind-braces remain original. The truss between bedrooms is mostly plastered but shows an exposed King-post and parts of cruck blades. The roof beams in the east bedroom have been replaced.