Plas-yn-Llan

Plas-yn-Llan

A two-storey gentry house of modest scale but considerable quality, built in brick with fine sandstone dressings and a slate roof. The house dates to the 17th or early 18th century and exemplifies the architectural conventions of Welsh gentry housing of that period.

The exterior is characterised by an off-centre entrance with a projecting end chimney stack, narrowly gabled with rebuilt stacks finished in decorative quoining in yellow brick. The house is single-pile in plan with three low gabled projections to the rear. A rubble plinth with plinth moulding runs beneath the main walls, flanked by rusticated quoins and surmounted by coved sandstone eaves. The gable parapets are coped with curved, moulded kneelers. The symmetrical seven-bay façade is divided by a plain projecting string-course between ground and first floors. The central entrance is approached via two steps and features a moulded and lugged architrave surmounted by a plain moulded pediment; the original six-panel door has moulded and fielded panels. The windows are near-flush 12-pane sashes with projecting central keystones to flat heads and tiled sills dating to around 1900. The two ground-floor windows on the right are unhorned originals, whilst all other windows are horned replacement sashes of the same period.

The rear elevation displays three contemporary gabled projections, concentrated to the right-hand half of the building. Each gable has a large modern wooden window with small-pane glazing; the two to the right were formerly entrances. Modern render has been applied to the left portion with modern windows to both floors. The right-hand (north-facing) gable has a blocked window to the attic floor. The left-hand (south-facing) gable contains a blocked entrance with a cambered head to the right of the stack and a narrow blocked side window to the first floor. Between the gable end and the chimney stack on the left is a contemporary closet projection of one-and-a-half storeys, with a hipped roof. This features a modern entrance on its east face with a concrete lintel and boarded door, and a modern steel-framed window to the ground floor. An attic window, currently boarded, is visible to the upper left of the gable.

The interior retains significant primary features. The entrance hall has a modern tiled floor and a modern stair leading off to one side. An original doorway at the rear remains, obscured, with an original raised and fielded two-panel door. Two original pegged oak doorways flank a segmental arch in a tripartite arrangement to the right of the hall. The doorway to the right retains its original two-panel door. The archway gives access to a passage leading to the former parlour.

The former parlour retains its primary door and a fine, complete sequence of large-field oak panelling, with moulded dado rail and cornice and fluted pilasters dividing the raised and fielded panels. Some horizontal dado panels were replaced around 1900 with plain vertical boarding. Panelled window seats and shutters survive. Opposite the windows is a cupboard recess with original paired, arched-headed doors. The fireplace has been modernised in brick but retains two horizontal raised and fielded overmantel panels. At the rear is a pantry with a beamed ceiling, including an evidently reused main beam featuring a broach-stopped chamfer of 16th-century character. An original oak dog-leg stair to the rear has turned pine balusters, original treads and risers and a plain string with a moulded rail with flat-capped, square newels. The balustrade returns on the first floor as a short galleried landing. Evidence for a former dog gate survives at the bottom of the upper flight.

At the head of the stair are paired original doorways to the front chambers, stepped up, with further single doors to the sides. All feature simple architraves with roll-moulded corner decoration and three or four panels, raised and fielded and set horizontally; some original simple iron door furniture survives. Plastered beams are visible in the front rooms, with elongated ogee stops characteristic of the house's period. A cupboard in the left-hand first-floor chamber, to the right of the fireplace, gives access to what was formerly a wig closet.