History

The site of a grange of the Cistercian abbey of Aberconway at Maenan, dissolved in 1537. Thereafter a part was domesticated and apparently survived as Plas Tai Hirion until the mid C19 when rebuilt as stables. A new house, called Plas Newydd, was built close to it at some point in the later C16; in 1590 it is recorded in the possession of a Thomas Wynn ap Richard. It is this house which represents the core of the present building, subsequently re-named Glan Conwy. It was owned by the Middletons of Chirk from 1635 until 1802, when the house was sold to the Rev. Robert Meyrick Humphreys. His nephew appears to have inherited on Humphrey's death in 1813 and was presumably responsible for the late Georgian rebuilding; mortgages of 1827 and 1844 may relate to stages in the phased construction, the latter perhaps having financed the new verandah on the W front. The rebuilding works were drawn up (and presumably in part overseen) by Thomas Sinclair, Telford's surveyor on the London-Holyhead road (A5), which was being cut through below Glan Conwy from 1815. The house was purchased by the first Lord Penrhyn in 1859; additions by both him and his son were demolished in the 1980s.

Exterior

Elegant 2-storey Regency house of roughly J-plan. Of stuccoed rubble construction with shallow-pitched, hipped slate roofs; plain rendered chimneys with C19 octagonal ceramic pots. 3-bay W front with plain flat pilasters forming bay divisions. Raised ground floor with central pointed-arched entrance and 4-pane French windows; flanking recessed, pointed-arched windows with 9-pane sash glazing and intersecting tracery to heads. In front of the ground floor openings, and running the whole length of the W side, a raised verandah, apparently a later addition. Slate roof, hipped at the ends and with inner plastered ceiling in 3 barrel-vaulted sections. Wooden lattice-work balustrade and pilasters between simple cast-iron columns. Elegant slate steps sweep in curved flights at the ends to ground level (railings lost); inlaid geometric floor in coloured slates. 9-pane recessed sash windows to first floor. The S front has a central, recessed entrance section, with flanking, projecting cross-wings, each with shallow, segmental bows. The entrance is via 3 modern steps and has a simple Grecian architrave with flat porch canopy carried on paired, scrolled brackets; deeply-recessed 6-panel door with rectangular decorative overlight. Flanking 12-pane sash windows and, to the first floor, two 16-pane sashes. The wings are taller and have hipped and bowed roofs; each has two 12-pane windows to the ground floor and two 9-pane windows to the first floor. Similar arrangement to N side, though with longer eastern cross-wing; this has single 12-pane sashes on both floors to its W return. 3-bay central section with 12-pane and 16-pane sashes as before.

Remodelled rear with central round-arched, open entrance and flanking 12-pane sashes in two pairs. 3 irregularly-spaced 16-pane windows to first floor and 4 hipped-roofed dormers to the attic; 12-pane casement windows. Rubble-walled rear service court with 2m high walls to N and S; wooden gate to former. At the SW corner a stuccoed garage block with hipped roof. Closing the court to the NW, a single-storey outbuilding of stuccoed rubble with hipped slate roof. This has 4 boarded doors and a 4-pane casement window to the long W side and a boarded window and a further casement to the corresponding E face; a former 2-bay cartshed addition adjoins at the NW corner, forming an L-plan with the main range (now log store). Plain square, stuccoed gatepiers at entrance to service court, between the two ranges.

Interior

Hall with elegant half-well stair, with painted pine stick balusters, swept mahogany rail and columnar newels; moulded tread-ends. Galleried landing to first floor, balustraded as before. Plain moulded cornices and dado rails throughout, and deeply-recessed 6-panelled doors off hall to L and R; simply-moulded architraves, panelled reveals. Simple Regency fireplaces to Dining (L) and Drawing (R) rooms, with characteristic reeded pilasters and rosette motifs; in the latter, a blind door (cupboard) to the R of the firelace, for symmetry. In the dining room a segmental sideboard niche; panelled shutters to both rooms. A 6-panelled door leads from the hall to a rear service passage; segmental fan above. Fielded 6-panel door to cellar at R; slate-stepped access. Back stair of narrow well type, with columnar newel, the upper section earlier, the lower flight later C19.

Reasons for Listing

Listed as an elegant Regency villa of particular refinement and quality, retaining good C19 external and internal character.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29480804

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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