Y Plas

Y Plas

A large gentry house of approximately 1788, built in rubble stone with a stuccoed main range, slate roofs and red brick chimney stacks. The building is arranged roughly in a U-plan around a small courtyard.

The formal east-facing front is in simple late Georgian style, presenting a two-storey elevation with a five-window main portion projected forward of single-window wings. A hipped roof is topped with two brick ridge stacks. The facade features a plinth, first-floor band, moulded cornice and coped parapet. Windows are twelve-pane sashes with painted stone or slate sills. The wider centre bay contains a window over a door beneath a large three-bay timber portico with entablature and dentilled cornice, supported on four Roman Doric columns with pilaster responds. The sides of this portico were later infilled with glazed panels. Below are paired half-glazed doors flanked by arched stucco niches. A fine flight of seven broad stone steps, flanked by rendered piers with moulded coping, leads to the entrance. The north end features a matching full-height three-sided canted bay with twelve-pane sashes, with blank walls on each side.

The rear wing, set back from the main range, is two-storey with a three-window range in painted rubble with matching parapet and brick end stacks. The ground-floor window on the left is taller and narrower, formerly a door.

The south end of the main range has a parallel rear range with a double hip to the south end of the valley roof and nogged brick eaves. The parapet of the facade is returned only a short distance. Red brick stacks sit in the valley and on the ridge of the rear range. The south end features an off-centre tall arched stair-light with interlacing glazing bars to the head, with a small inserted four-pane sash set to the left. The ground floor has three evenly spaced doors: a boarded timber door at the centre (possibly original) and two others appearing to be twentieth-century insertions.

The rear west elevation presents a stuccoed two-storey, four-window range facing the court, partly obscured to the left by later extensions. A first-floor left stair-light with arched head is obscured by boarding. A rear wing at right angles has a first-floor twelve-pane sash to a short south face, stripped of plaster.

Beyond the main house stands a lower two-storey L-plan range of outbuildings in rubble stone, formerly rendered, with red nogged brick courses below the eaves. Small square six-pane sashes light the loft. The north side has four windows: twelve-pane sashes to the ground floor with cambered brick heads, and six-pane windows to the first floor with heads concealed by rough portions of stucco. The roof is hipped at the southwest angle. The return west rear has irregular windows comprising four six-pane sashes to the first floor, offset from the ends due to two massive red brick stacks, with a modern twentieth-century door and window visible beneath the third window. The south end wall has a six-pane sash to the first floor and a large double two-pane sash to the ground floor, both with cambered brick heads. The east wall has a large similar sash to the ground floor left, bisecting an older low opening. To the right is a former door with cambered brick head, blocked in red brick, then a four-panel door reused from the house, with original eight-pane overlight and cambered brick head. The remainder of the ground floor is obscured by partly-demolished twentieth-century structures. The first floor has six-pane sashes to the centre and far right. The south face of the north range links with the main house rear wing, marked by a change in roof height, with a first-floor six-pane sash to the left near the angle.

The interior, under restoration and considerably damaged in the mid to later twentieth century, retains important features. A central hallway features a modillion cornice and Corinthian screen with two columns and pilaster responds. Beyond lies a three-sided open-well timber staircase with stick balusters and ramped handrail. A lead-glazed arched-headed stair-light displays a coat of arms in nineteenth-century coloured glass. Fine quality stucco cornices and broad flat-headed arches open to reception rooms, with similar cornice detail to bedrooms. Late eighteenth-century fireplaces of good quality are present. The cornice detail of fluted frieze with festooned rosettes is similar in style and execution to detail in Whitson Court near Newport, Monmouthshire, by Nash, c1791. Six-panel timber doors throughout. Most windows retain panelled timber internal shutters. Boarded timber floors serve the upper storey. A service stair was partly removed to accommodate a lift, which has since been removed.

In the rear range, ground-floor internal walls have been largely removed. The former kitchen contains a massive later eighteenth-century fireplace with broad elliptical stone arch, stone voussoirs and keystone, with side piers featuring impost bands and red brick exposed over the voussoirs. Floors were originally slate flags, with quarry tiles laid over approximately 1953. The north room of the same range has a fireplace with red brick basket arch. The roof of the rear range has bolted trusses with pegs to the apex joints of collar trusses.

The main range contains vaulted cellars with wide stone access steps and several rooms for wine, fruit and coal storage. Meat hooks and salting slabs are evident.