Plas-newydd

Plas-newydd is a large middle-class house in Tudor Revival style. It is rendered and painted with a shallow-pitched hipped slate roof and long narrow stacks parallel with the main ridge. A small gabled dormer with Gothick glazing is set within the roof.

The building presents a wide frontage of two storeys and an attic. The main windows are cross-framed with square hoodmoulds and feature early plate glass sashes, with some old glass retained. The centre bay projects and contains a two-storey canted bay with a flat roof to the first floor and a shallow-pitched slate-roofed verandah extending the full length of the ground floor windows. This verandah is supported by slender columns on stone bases, linked by wide cusped ogee arches and boarded inside. To each side of the central bay is a two-window range with small blind gables and apex finials to the first-floor end windows; the left range has long ground-floor windows with a verandah. A doorway to the centre left contains double three-quarter-glazed doors.

The north side elevation features a deep ground-floor bay window, a three-light window to the first floor above, and a Gothick-glazed oriel window to the rear, all overlooking the main garden. The south side has a two-window range with Gothick glazing to full attic dormers and a central first-floor triangular oriel-type window. A blind window adjoins this, with paired small-pane sashes elsewhere. The rear elevation is flat, with a range of paired small-pane sashes and a pentice overlooking a part-walled service yard that incorporates an ice-house built into the steep bank behind.

The interior reflects a distinct hierarchy between polite and service areas. The hall is L-shaped with a living room with garden views opening to the left and a dining room facing the frontage to the right, separated by a Tudor-style ceiling arch. Fine doors with narrow vertical panels and similar shutters are features throughout, with carefully detailed reveals. The drawing room contains a marble fireplace with spandrels carved with bullrushes and a primrose keystone. The dining room features an elaborate wooden Renaissance-style nineteenth-century fireplace from Llantarnam Hall, an oak-leaf cornice, and both parquet and boarded flooring. An early twentieth-century fireplace with peat burner has been inserted at the rear, accompanied by dado work with painted 1920s lower surface.

The division between polite and service areas is marked by a hall doorway leading to a butler's pantry with glazed cupboards, a passage with red and ochre quarry tile flooring, a study with black marble fireplace, and a small hall with back stairs. Beyond lies a servants hall with a high window (formerly containing a range) and cupboards, adjoining a kitchen with quarry tile flooring, dresser, plate racks, and a pantry with cool slab and meat hooks. A former dairy is adjacent. A trap door provides access to the cellar via brick steps with a vaulted ceiling.

The main stairs feature a wreathed ramped handrail and grooved stick balusters, lit by a roof lantern. The upper rooms are of generous proportions with similar fittings to the ground floor. At the rear is a nursery with fireplace and an adjacent bathroom with original bath and fireplace. The upper floors again demonstrate a clear distinction between polite and service areas, with four-panelled doors and small-pane windows in service rooms. Doors here are four-panelled. Rooms extend over three levels, with the first-floor ceilings of the frontage set only just above window level to accommodate this arrangement. The service wing includes a nursery, servants bedrooms, day nursery, schoolroom, and nanny's room.