Plas Machen

Plas Machen is a substantial house built of purple rubble stone, originally lime-rendered, with stone-tiled roofs and numerous 19th-century brick chimneys. Each chimney has a red brick base and white brick square diagonally-set shafts. The building is two storeys with a two-storey gabled porch and displays the characteristics of a medieval or early modern structure significantly altered in the 19th century.

The east front range features a 2-shaft chimney at the right end and an axial 3-shaft chimney on the ridge. The windows are stone-mullioned with leaded glazing and iron opening lights, mostly of Bath stone ashlar and likely mostly renewed in the 19th century. The hoodmoulds typically have square stops.

The porch contains a four-centred arched moulded entry with double wave mouldings and hoodmould, together with a board door fitted with 19th-century strap hinges. Above the entry is a 4-light stone-mullion window with hollow mouldings and Tudor-arched heads to the lights, capped by a hoodmould. The porch's right side has a 19th-century 2-light matching window above a corbelled chimney breast serving a 19th-century single-shaft chimney. The chamber within the porch has a square-headed diagonally-boarded door, panelled on the inside.

To the right of the porch is a projecting lean-to stair with a similar 2-light window, followed by a 2-storey range with two 3-light mullion windows on each floor, all similar in character but irregularly disposed. A 19th-century lean-to porch to the right contains a square-headed door set between stone-tiled panels on two chamfered posts. The left gable end has a small single light on each floor; the ground floor window features a diamond stop to its hoodmould.

Set back to the left of the porch is a slightly projected gable with 3-light flat-headed windows on three floors. All lights are square-headed; the attic and first floor windows are roll-moulded, while the ground floor window is ovolo-moulded.

A 19th-century projecting wing extends to the left and has a massive eastern end-wall external chimneybreast with red brick quoins, featuring a top and two diagonal shafts.

The south elevation facing the garden is divided into three parts. The 19th-century wing to the right has 3-light windows, one to the first floor and two below, all recessed and roll-moulded. A straight joint marks the gabled centre section, presumably the end of the main range, which carries a pair of large 19th-century 3-light mullion-and-transom windows to each floor, each with a single hoodmould. A massive 16th-century external chimneybreast on the left side wall features a tapering rubble stone shaft beneath a single large shaft above.

The set-back wing to the left has two 2-shaft stacks, one at the left end and the other on the ridge to the right. This section presents a two-storey and attic front with distinctly different mullioned windows of purple sandstone. These windows are hollow-moulded with sunk spandrels and incised crosses on small bosses above each depressed-arched light, topped by heavy hoodmoulds. Two irregular bays are visible: the centre bay has a gable over an attic 2-light, first floor 3-light, and ground floor 4-light window, all with hoodmoulds. To the right is a door with a stone lintel, and in the angle to the large chimneybreast sit two small square single light windows in chamfered frames, one above the other under the eaves; the lower window is of limestone.

The rear elevation is sited on a steep bank. The main rear wing projects to the right with a lean-to against its left side. A spine range with a visible stair-gable to the left of the main rear wing shows a step in the roofing to the left of the axial chimney. A smaller and later rear wing lies to the left, with a short section of the main range's rear wall at the extreme left. This section includes a blocked 2-light window to the first floor, matching those on the front, and a section of stone shelf to the left over a large corner buttress. A small stone-walled garden occupies the angle between this section and the smaller rear wing.

The rear wing features a western single-shaft chimney-stack, and on its north side two casement-pair windows, one with stone voussoirs and one with a timber lintel, together with a blocked basement door. The gable end displays a straight joint to the right of centre, suggesting this wing is later than the lean-to against the main rear wing's side. The lean-to contains a door, a 20th-century window above, and a loft window. One gabled dormer projects from the side of the main rear wing above the lean-to. A square stair-turret in the angle between the lean-to and rear wing has a battered base and stone top; the angle to the wing is slightly splayed and fitted with one tiny loop light. The wing's end gable has a battered base, a deep-set basement window with a relieving arch, a ground floor deep-set narrow loop with a stone slab lintel to a splayed opening, a blocked window to the left of centre with a relieving arch, and two small attic windows with rebuilt sides.

The interior has not been fully inspected. The stair hall contains an early 19th-century open-well stair with stick balusters, column newels, closed string, and ramped rails to the banister. Six-panel doors are present throughout. The floor is stone-flagged. Two four-centred arched doorways lead to the first floor rear and right. A stone winding stair occupies a small stair turret beside the entrance porch. The basement to the rear wing is stone-vaulted.