9819

 

II*  

Designated  

28/02/1952  

16/02/1996  

Plas y Wern  

 

Ceredigion  

Llanarth  

 

Gilfachreda  

241551  

258539  

 

Situated on E side of B4342, about 1 km NNW of Llanarth.  

Domestic  

 

C15 or C16 and later C17 house of the Lloyd family, descendants of Einion ap Dafydd Llwyd who entertained Henry Tudor at Y Wern in 1485. The main part was built c1670 and the name became Wern Newydd. Little altered thereafter as the family seat moved to Nantgwyllt, Radnorshire. Restored with minor additions 1936 for Alastair Graham, friend of Evelyn Waugh, to designs by John Greenidge.  

Main c1670 range is roughcast with steep outswept valley roof, double hip on W side, moulded eaves cornice, and big stone W side wall stack with rebated angles and centre indent. Two storeys and basement. Roughly square plan with big C18 15-pane sashes. S front 3-window with C17 panelled door in right bay, with oval centre panel and moulded doorcase. C17 ornate scrolled consoles above, carrying later hipped slate hood. Timber pilasters also added. W side is windowless to right, two-window range to right. Rubble stone N wall with side-wall stone stack, gabled dormer to right. Basement door in ovolo-moulded timber frame to right, basement window to centre also ovolo-moulded, perhaps indicative of original mullion-and-transom form of main windows. Older range to E is rubble stone with slightly lower ridge line and massive C16 E end outside chimney. S front is three-storey, one-window, to extreme left, then outshut (possibly built out in C16), two-storey, two-window, the left projecting more than the right. Ovolo-moulded 3-light timber-mullion window to ground floor right, otherwise casements. In NE angle is two-storey section with lean-to roof against end of main house and N end stack. Battered walling indicates early date, possibly C16, but C19 door and windows. Beyond to N is 1936 lean-to unusually detailed with buttresses, and gabled section to right with bellcote.  

Outstanding c1670 interiors, two main rooms ground floor rooms have bolection-moulded panelling, cornices and fireplaces. Dining room has heavily panelled plaster ceiling with centre circle and axial ribs, drawing room has lower relief ceiling details, centre oval, square-with-half-circles panel and outer border. Stairs are broad, dog-leg, with panelled newels, heavy moulded rail and twisted balusters. Four flights to attic. Plaster moulded undersides. First floor: S bedroom has similar panelling, N library has large early C18 panels. Bedroom has ceiling with deep plastered beams, four diagonals centred on a transverse beam. Rear wing has ground floor room with big timber-lintel fireplace at E end and off to N, a square stone stair winding around a centre square stone pier. This rises to the attic. Attic, music-room since 1936 with W gallery, has 3 collar-trusses with triple through-purlins. Collars are slightly arched and there is chamfering to the undersides and lower sides of blades.The roof-trusses are of late medieval type and relate to the earliest phase of the house, a possible first floor hall (RCHMW). The stair relates to existing floor levels so may be C16, or the whole may be C16. The block to the N contains the room (now bathroom) reputedly where Henry Tudor stayed. It may be a C16 parlour wing, much altered.  

The most important late C17 house in Cardiganshire and possibly the only surviving late medieval gentry house in that county.