Gate-house, with gate-piers and retaining wall to courtyard, Plas Rhianfa

Cadw's description

Location

Set back from the SE side of the A545 Beaumaris Road out of Menai Bridge towards Beaumaris.

History

The building of the Plas Rhianfa was begun in 1849, for Sir John Hay Williams, 2nd Baronet of Bodelwyddan. The house was intended as a dower house, to provide a home for his wife and daughters after his death. Sir John and Lady Sarah Williams did much of the design work themselves, but used as their architect, Charles Reed of Liverpool, and John Rogers of Beaumaris as builder. Designed in a similar idiom, and built using similar materials, the gate-house seems clearly to be an integral part of the original scheme.

Exterior

Gatehouse. French Gothic style. Faced in Penmon limestone rubble with freestone dressings, and fish-scale slate roof. Two storeyed from courtyard level, but descending to the garden level below. Square in plan, echoing the main house in its detail, including the miniature turrets which clasp each angle at first floor level. West facing elevation has archway through to stable-yard to right, with triangular oriel window cutting through eaves above. Porch advanced to left as square turret. Narrow window onto N (roadside) elevation, and paired narrow lights to S. Dormers within the roof to N and S, each with traceried lights, nail-head decoration and cresting. A later C20 flat roofed extension disturbs the original design to the E.
A pair of gate-piers adjoins the gate-house to the N: square piers with tall pyramidal copings.
The gate-house is linked to the main house by a castellated wall (through which a staircase descends). This serves as a retaining wall for the courtyard.

Interior

Not inspected.

Reason for designation

Listed as an integral part of the ensemble of building at Plas Rhianfa, and itself a small-scale essay in the French Gothic style.