Y Plas, with associated garden and driveway walls

Cadw's description

Location

Porth-y-nant is set at the bottom of the steep valley opening to the sea, 1.69km NW of Llithfaen. Y Plas is at the western end of the N range of houses, and is approached by a walled driveway below the communal square.

History

Porth-y-nant was the name given to the new settlement planned and built for the exploitation of the granite deposits in Nant Gwrtheyrn, which was begun by Hugh Owen in 1851. The village was built by a new purchaser, Mr Dodd from c1863 and completed by a Mr Benthal. The present houses were built in c1875 by the then quarry operators Kneeshaw and Lupton. It housed workers in two main terraces of dwellings which were considered an advanced provision for quarry workers at the time. The terraces are set around an open communal square, together with company offices, a shop and bakehouse. Later, the manager's house and a chapel, erected in 1878, were added. The village, which continued to serve the three large quarries, Cae'r Nant, Porth-y-nant, and Carreg-y-llam, produced large quantities of granite setts and kerbs, particularly for Manchester, Liverpool and Birkenhead, and continued to operate until 1914. Significant quantities of aggregates and building stone were also produced. The last person left in 1959, and after years of neglect and vandalism, the buildings were revived at the expense of ARC Aggregates as a home for the National Language School sponsored by Dr Carl Iwan Clowes in 1978, its courses beginning in 1982. Y Plas was built for the quarry manager c1880, and although approached by a walled driveway, was in direct association with the quarry workers' houses, and not set well apart as was common practice at that period.

Exterior

Rendered lined and quoined, with a hipped slate roof and central stack. Two storeys, the main front facing S of 2 bays, with square bay windows and hipped roofs on the ground floor, 12-pane timber windows replacing sashes to the first floor. The entrance is on the E side in a projecting gabled porch. Rubble stone walls enclose the garden, and line the wide tree-lined driveway approach to the house.

Interior

The original cross hallway separated living rooms at the front and service rooms at the rear. The interior has now been altered and opened up to provide tutorial accommodation and a library,

Reason for designation

Included as a typical mid-later C19 house for the managerial class, and a critical component of the complete new industrial settlement planned by the successful quarries of Nant Gwrtheyrn, and where social awareness and the benefits of good quality provision for workers was being learned.