Plas Bodewryd

Cadw's description

Location

Set back from the NE side of the country road in the rural hamlet of Bodewryd, c3km ESE of Llanfechell. Plas Bodewryd lies c200m due N of the Church of St Mary.

History

The present house at Plas Bodewryd consists of a late C15 or early C16 central block, orientated N-S, Regional house type of lateral chimney and inside cross-passage; with a S wing added or rebuilt in the early C17 (advanced to E). The central block was extended N in the late C17 and a staircase bay added to the E. A small wing was added on the E side of the central block in the early C18, and a W wing is also possibly of this date. A large wing was added to the NW in the late C19, and a small wing added to the E. Formerly owned by Lord Stanley of Alderley (Penrhos), Plas Bodewryd was the home to Dr Edward Wynne, Chancellor of Hereford, d1755. Said, by P Smith, to have a shield of arms dated 1615.

Exterior

Large 2-storey gentry house of complex plan, enlarged and extended over centuries, now of predominantly C18 character. Built of rubble masonry, rendered elevations throughout; modern slate roof with rendered axial and gable stacks, now with tiled coping and yellow clay flues. Windows are predominantly small-paned hornless sashes with slate sills.
The principal elevation faces W, a 5-window range with projecting wing to L (N) joined at the corner, and to R (S); the main block extends beyond the advanced C18 W wing to the S as a single window range (the W end of the SE wing). Backing onto an axial stack, the entrance is now a modern boarded door offset slightly right R (S) of the 5-window range, in a continuous ground floor lean-to addition; ground floor windows are paired 12-pane sashes, first floor 12-pane sashes set directly under the eaves (an 8-paned sash to far R end). The continuation of the main range to the S has a small fire or closet window to the ground floor and a sash window of intermediate height above.
The projecting wings have planned fenestration of predominantly 12-paned sash windows. The S wall of the NW wing is a 2-window range with windows offset to the W end, the W gable return has single ground and 1st floor windows offset to the L (N) and the N wall has single ground and 1st floor window offset to the E. The N wall of the S wing has a single ground floor window offset to the W with a 1st floor window offset to its L (E); there is another 1st floor window, an 8-pane horned sash, offset to the far L (E) end. The S wall of the W wing has a single ground and 1st floor window to the L (W) end and a blocked ground floor opening to the R.
The broad gable at the S end of the main block has 3 ground and 1st floor windows and a single window set in the gable apex; to the R (E) the elevation continues along the S side of the SE wing, ground floor with 12-pane sash to far right, 1st floor with 2 circular lights offset to R (E) end.
The E (rear) elevation has the SE, hipped roofed, wing at the far L (S) end, a 5-window range extends N with 2 gabled projections offset to L. The entrance is through a single-storey porch to the L (S), the main doorway with a wide studded door (probably to the former main entrance to the house); to the R (N) is a single-storey hipped roof added wing. The fenestration is scattered with single and paired sash windows along the range. There is a modern cambered-headed window in the E end of the single storey wing, and modern lights in the 2-window block to the far R (N); a 9-paned ground floor window in a blocked doorway (modern doorway to L) and single paned casements set under the eaves above.

Interior

Interior not inspected at time of survey. Said, by RCAHMW to have been modernised, includes heavy moulded beams; C17 plaster cornice, partition, and stairs with square newels and turned balusters.

Reason for designation

Listed as a good multi-period gentry house retaining substantial surviving fabric of a sub-Medieval C17 house, including some internal detail. Successive enlargements still within a vernacular tradition, albeit on a large scale, and given strong and coherent character by early C19 fenestration.