History

Former seat of the Heaton family who moved to nearby Plas Newydd (subsequently renamed Plas Heaton) c1805. The Heatons have a long association with the area: Alexander Heaton, of Heaton in Lancashire, was one of the knights who came to Denbigh with Henry de Lacy in the 1290s. To the rear of the main house are traces of a moat (now much in-filled), which, together with a second moat, a short distance to the SE, may relate to this early period. The present building represents the main house in a unit-planned complex with 2 surviving domestic ranges. This building is in its present form probably a late C16 house which was altered and extended in the late C17. An ex-situ dated panel of 1680 probably relates to this phase.

Exterior

T-shaped house of one-and-a-half storeys; of limestone rubble and partly brick construction with pebble-dashed principal elevations; slate roofs with slab-coped gable parapets having curved kneelers. Central brick chimney with early C20 heightening and a projecting, gabled end chimney to the rear arm, with brown sandstone stack (reduced). The S (yard-facing) front has three 12-pane unhorned sash windows to each floor, the upper ones breaking eaves and contained within hipped dormers; similar ground-floor window to the R gable end. The L gable end has a projecting brick gabled chimney with modern top section; this partly overlays an earlier, C16 or C17 window (now blocked) with pegged oak frame.

The rear wing has a C19 outshut to its W side with modern stable-type door and a small-pane modern window to the L; tall brick chimney at the corner. The corresponding eastern side has a single-storey early C20 porch extruded in the corner, with part-glazed contemporary door. Modern multi-pane wooden window to the ground floor R, with a 12-pane dormered sash above, as before; 12-pane fixed window to the L.

Interior

In the angle between the wings is a C17 well stair with flat pierced balusters and geometric patterning of conjoined ovals and rectangles to the string; square newels with S-shaped relief carving. On an ex-situ wooden plaque affixed to the stair: HIM:AN:DO:1680 (for Heaton). It is likely that the staircase, probably second-quarter or mid C17 in origin, was updated and simplified c1680 when the house was remodelled. Two-panel fielded cupboard door, probably mid C18.

Reasons for Listing

Listed for its special interest as a dated late C17 gentry house with earlier origins retaining good original historic character and forming part of an early unit-planned complex.

Group value with other listed items at Plas Heaton Farm.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29481474

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)