Plas Blodwell

Cadw's description

Location

Set back from the road directly opposite Ysgol Maelgwyn.

History

Originally a children's home and built in the 1920s or 1930s. It was later converted to a nursing home. It was converted to offices and apartments in 1994 (tablet inside building).

Exterior

A large neo-Georgian 2-storey block of brown brick, with slightly darker bricks to the quoins, under a steep hipped slate roof on a moulded wooden dentil cornice and projecting eaves. All stacks are brick, and comprise one at each end, 4 set just below the ridge on the front roof slope, and one behind in the centre. The symmetrical front is 15 bays in groups of 3, of which the outer 3 bays on each side are brought forward under a hipped roof. The central entrance has a replacement glazed door under original small-pane side and overlights, flanked by floor-length 2-light windows with overlights. In the centre is a 3-bay 1st-floor balcony on paired thin Tuscan steel piers, with an openwork balustrade of elongated diamond pattern. The 1st floor has a central tripartite window which, with flanking windows, are small-pane sashes with intersecting Gothic glazing bars. Other windows are hornless sashes. The next 3 bays on the R and L have, in the ground floor, 8-pane tripartite windows flanking a narrower 8-pane window and, to the 1st floor, paired 8-pane windows flanking a narrower single 8-pane window. The outer 3 bays each have a 12-pane window flanked by 8-pane windows in the ground floor, floor-length 18-pane window flanked by 8-pane in the 1st floor. The floor-length windows open to cantilevered balconies at each end, which have balustrades similar to the central balcony.

The L end wall has a false external stack, three 12-pane windows in the lower storey, two 4-pane windows in the upper storey, and doorway inserted into the stack, with escape stair. The R end wall has two 12-pane ground-floor windows and two narrow 4-pane 1st-floor windows flanking the false external stack. A ground-floor window has also been inserted on the L side.

The rear has advanced 3-window bays to the centre and ends, under hipped roofs with lower ridge line than the main range. The central advanced bay has two 12-pane windows in the 1st floor, and in the ground floor a tripartite 8-pane window with inserted fan, flanked by single 8-pane windows. The central bay is flanked by 2 bays with 6-pane windows on the L and 1 similar bay on the R, then lower links to two 2-storey flat-roofed wings. Above the R-hand wing are a 6-pane and smaller 4-pane window in the 1st floor. Beyond the L-hand rear wing is a 1-storey projection below 3 1st-floor windows including a tall 12-pane stair light. The corresponding R side has a tall 14-pane stair window and 9-pane horned sash window to its R in the 1st floor. Below it in the lower storey is an original moulded freestone surround to replacement half-glazed doors and overlight. The projection at the L end has, in both storeys, an inserted door and overlight flanked by 8-pane windows, and the upper storey has added escape stairs to a balcony on steel posts. On the corresponding R-hand side are, in the ground floor, a 12-pane flanked by 8-pane windows, and in the upper storey a taller 18-pane window flanked by 8-pane windows.

The rear wings are mainly of brick, with roofs concealed behind parapets. They have original 2-light casements, with lying panes, in the 1st floor. Below are altered windows.

Interior

Largely modernised, but it retains an axial corridor leading to staircases set back from the ends. These both have an open-well stair with turned newels and plain balusters.

Reason for designation

Listed for its social-historical interest as a former children's home, and for its architectural interest as a large and well-preserved neo-Georgian block, a rare well-preserved example of its type.