Plas Penmynydd

Cadw's description

Location

In an isolated rural location, set back from the N side of the B5420 NW of Penmynydd.

History

The rectangular N block, with projecting stack on the S side, represents the original house built in 1576. It is thought (by RCAHM) that it may have been partially destroyed and rebuilt in the mid C17; the living room fireplace, a carved stone corbel and blocked doorway in the N wall are the only C16 features in situ. The kitchen was added (S) in the late C17, with further additions and alterations made in the C19; later alterations include the staircase.

Reset into the W side of the kitchen extension is a stone bearing the date and initials: 1576 R. O. T. (Richard Owen Tudor).

Plas Penmynydd is known as the home of the Tudors. The family can be traced back to 5 brothers: Gronw (his effigy tomb is in the nearby church of St Gredifael), Ednefyed, Rhys, Gwilym, and Maredudd - father of Owain Tudor. Owain joined the army of Henry V and went on to marry his widow Katherine de Valois. They had 2 sons, Edmund and Jasper. Edmund became the Duke of Richmond and married Margaret Beaufort. His son, Henry, went over to France and returned with an army to defeat Richard III on Bosworth Field in 1485. He then became Henry VII, the first of the Tudor Kings of England.

Penmynydd was the inheritance of Gronw, the eldest of the brothers, and when he died he left the estate to his only daughter, Morvydd. Tudor Fychan inherited on his mothers death and was in turn followed by his son, Owen Tudor Fychan, esquire of body to Henry VII. His son, Richard Owen, was Sheriff of Anglesey in 1565 and 1573, and it is his son, Richard Owen Tudor, for whom the original dated Plas was built.

The estate continued to pass through the male line, many of whom were Sheriffs of Anglesey in their turn, until the last male, another Richard Owen Tudor died leaving the estate to his daughter. The estate then passed into the Bulkeley estate of Porthamel and by marriage into the Meyrick estate of Bodorgan until it was sold in 1722 to Lord Bulkeley of Baron Hill.

By the time of the Tithe Map and Schedule of the parish, 1843, the house was owned by Lord Richard Williams Bulkeley and farmed by Thomas Owen. The Tithe Schedule is well detailed, listing every field within the holding, but hard to read. The Census Returns of 1851 record that Thomas Owen was not only a famer of 270 acres (109.4 hectares), employing 10 labourers, but also High Sherrif of Anglesey; he lived at the farm with his wife, 4 children and niece.

Exterior

Two storey farmhouse with attics; the N block represents the extent of the original, 1576, house; with later additions to rear (S). Rendered and slate clad stone walls. Roof of old small slates; tall chimneys with moulded capping (S stack is gabled, a square shaft of coursed gritstone with chamfered offsets and a moulded capping of C17 character).

The original N doorway is now partially blocked, with a window in the upper part; the stone step and four-centred rear arch remain. Above it is a stone cross shaft and a stone each side, one with the Tudor arms (C16), and the other a Saracen's head. Reset in the E wall of the late C17 kitchen extension to rear (S) are two stones; one reads: PERACTV EST OPVS LAVS DEO, and the other: VIVE VT VIVAS ANNO DOMINI. On the W side reset in a modern wall is a stone which bears the date and initials: 1576 R.O.T.

Sash windows with glazing bars, some recessed, and with visible frames. Entrance door has 6 fielded panels and rectangular fan with glazing bars.

Interior

The original house (N block) was rebuilt in mid C17, the groundplan then with central living room or kitchen and rooms to either side; the staircase to the R (W) of the central room, either leading out of the room or from a screened off passage.

The Hall fireplace of the Elizabethan house has been retained and is now sited in the sitting room; it has a four-centred arch with a double roll-moulding continued on the jambs. The room also retains 3 C17 chamfered oak beams with moulded stops, which carry the ceiling beams. The central beam is supported at the N end by a C16 stone corbel carved with a human face, probably in situ, a support for the Hall roof truss. The partition between the Hall and the room to the E is a C17 division and consists partly of plain rails with roughly bevelled panels. The partition between the staircase passage and the room to the W also marks the C17 division. On the first floor 2 chamfered beams are visible. The late C17 kitchen has a stop chamfered cross-beam and an oak beam over the fireplace.

The roof of the N block is C17; the pitch later flattened by raising the lower purlins and some C17 panelling is fixed beneath one of the trusses.

Reason for designation

Listed as a good C17 gentry house which retains some features of the early, original mid C16 Plas. The house is of immense historical interest for its connection with the Royal Tudor line.