Plas Dolau

Cadw's description

Location

Situated at the end of a drive some 200m N off the A44 between Llanbadarn Fawr and Capel Dewi.

History

Gentry house probably of earlier to mid C19 with wings added, and rear additions in 1897 when bought by Sir Gruffydd H. Pugh Evans of Lovesgrove. It may have been part of the Fronfraith estate as marked as Dole Farmhouse on 1838 tithe map owned by Isaac Bonsall, occupied by Morgan Morgans. The tithe map is not clear enough to discern whether the present house includes the farmhouse. Occupied in 1871 by William Besemeres, retired physician, unoccupied in 1881, in 1895 by Lt Gen Jenkin Jones RE, in 1910 by G.H. Errington and from 1912 by Richard T. Greer JP, former senior civil servant in India, chairman of Calcutta Corporation and later Commissioner of Bengal and Orissa, son-in-law of Sir Gruffydd. Sold by Evans family in late C20 to Mrs P. Twigg and converted to holiday accommodation c2000. The National Library has an estate map of 1819 among the Nanteos papers.

Exterior

Country house, unpainted lined stucco with deep-eaved slate roofs. Original house has E front of two storeys, 3-window range between added one-bay projecting gabled wings. Ground floor front has 5 French windows with marginal glazing bars and pointed glazing bars in top lights, and first floor has 12-pane sashes to wings, 3 9-pane sashes to centre. Centre fine timber large Roman Doric doorcase with pediment and pilaster responds. Rendered brick double-shaft chimneys at ends of original house and outer side-walls of wings. S wall of S wing has 2 9-pane sashes to ground floor and one to first floor right, and W end is gabled with hipped 2-storey projection under gable verge. N wall of N wing was entry to coach-house with lintel over former opening, and rear W has 6-panel door and overlight set to left. Rear of main house has outshut roof with big paired brick chimney on eaves left and window and door to ground floor left. Attached to right is long SW rear wing with paired stacks on ridge and at W end. N side of wing, to rear yard, has projection partly overlapping rear of main outshut. Lean-to on W end. Four-window S side has mainly 9-pane sashes, door in second bay from left.

Interior

Interior altered, originally 2-room plan with centre stair hall, but left front room opened into stair hall. Stair has lost lowest treads, but has stick balusters each baluster with 2 square rings, ramped rail and thin bulbous newels. Stair hall cornice has rosettes between brackets. Some panelled shutters and 6-panel doors mostly late C19. C19 slate fireplaces in both original rooms, that to right painted, with acanthus brackets and centre panel, that to left panelled. Older 6-panel door into former garage in N wing. Deep fireplace wall between left room and S wing. Room in S wing has a third moulded slate fireplace with spiral twisted mouldings First floor much altered, some older 6-panel doors and earlier C19 fireplaces with roundels in angles.

Reason for designation

Included as a late Georgian style smaller country house, with later additions, one of the remarkable group of smaller country houses around Aberystwyth.