4695

 

II  

Designated  

24/04/1951  

25/02/2005  

Plas Dol-y-moch  

 

Gwynedd  

Maentwrog  

 

Vale of Ffestiniog  

268401  

341907  

 

On the narrow country road that runs along the N side of the Vale of Ffestiniog between the A487(T) and the B4391; ENE of Maentwrog.  

Domestic  

 

Dol-y-moch means 'house of the rapids', originally called Dol-y-dwyryd. and was visited by Lewys Dwnn in 1588, when the head of the family which lived there was John ap Robert ap Hywel, descended from Hywel Coetmor, whose attributed arms Lewys recorded for John. The older (late C16) part of the house comprises the main, central range with kitchen at the L end and service wing to rear; the RH (E) wing rebuilt in 1643. The early C20 additional block is at the L end of the main range, including the LH advanced wing. The present house of Dol-y-moch was acquired in 1643, by John Jones, son of Richard Jones of Craflwyn, Beddgelert, a descendant of Iesty ap Gwrgan, Morus, Baron of the Exchequer in 1585 and Dafydd Bangor, Dean of Bangor in 1399; he married Ann of Braich-y-bib and Coetmor, descendant out of Hywel Coetmor of Dolwyddelan Castle and Llewelyn Fawr, and heiress of the Dol-y-moch estate. The estate passed down through the family to their descendant, Miss Jones Pugh (of Pennant, Penmachno) who married W J Bankes of Flintshire in the early C19 and their son, John Eldon Bankes, sold Dol-y-moch to the Oakeley family of Plas Tan-y-bwlch in 1874. It was put up for sale, along with the Plas itself and many of the estate properties in the village of Maentwrog, in an auction in 1910. The house and grounds was then purchased by William Howland Jackson, a barrister of Lincolns Inn, London, who restored the farmhouse and built the nearby Dol-y-moch farm; the architect Mr Oswald P Milne. The house remained in the family until 1945 and then had several other private owners until 1957 when it was bought by the Central Electricity Generating Board; sold 9 years later to the present owners, the City of Coventry Corporation. The buildings at Plas Dol-y-moch are not annotated on the tithe map of the parish, 1840, which seems to be a strange ommission as the estate is recorded in the apportionment as being a substantial holding of close to 1300 acres (526 hectares); owned by George G Bankes Esq, Reverend Edward Bankes and the Right Honorable Earl of Falmouth, and occupied at that time by Evan Evans.  

Gentry house of 2-storeys and attics. Built of coursed and dressed local stone; slate roof with exceptionally tall stone stacks with dripstones and capping. Main range with later flanking wings. Main range of two and a half storeys, a 4-window range with the doorway offset to the R (E) with 2 windows to L and one to R. The windows are modern mullioned and transomed timber casements of 3-lights and the attic windows are 2-light casements in gable dormers. The gable end of the advanced wing to R has similar ground and 1st floor windows and the 2-light casement attic window is set in a rendered gable apex; the ground floor window in a partially blocked doorway. The L lateral wall has a single ground and first floor window and the R lateral wall is a 3-window range with central doorway and gable dormers. A stone on the outer wall is inscribed with the date: 1643. The L (W) advanced wing is slightly lower, and has similar windows to ground and first floor, the R lateral wall has a single window and the L (W) wall is a 2-window range with first floor windows in raking dormers that break the eaves line. At the NW corner is a single storey range built to an L-shaped plan along the N and W sides of an enclosed yard; the range has boarded doors and small paned casements of 2 and 3-lights.  

House comprises hall and parlour (now dining room) in main range; staircase in wing to rear. Kitchen and scullery are in the west wing, drawing room in wing to right. Larders and stores to north and west of enclosed yard. The older parts of the house retain large collared trusses with angled struts and massive chamfered cross beams and exposed joists; a staircase constructed of slate slabs is raised from the hall to the top of the house and there is a slate slab floor along the rear passageway. Running around the walls of the drawing room, in the E advanced wing, is a plaster frieze depicting the shields of arms of the 15 tribes of Gwynedd; only 8 of which now remain, some others have been defaced or lost. In the principal upstairs room is a plaster overmantel that bears an armourial bas-relief with a shield of the arms of Gollwyn ap Tangno implaing a chevron between 3 spear heads (Hywel Coetmor); the shield is encircled by a floriate motif and flanked by human heads. In the back room is a similar overmantel that bears of shield of arms Quarterly Iestyn ap Gwrgan and Gollwyn ap Tangno. The crest is the Paschal Lamb, and the motto: Velle quod vult Deus; the whole flanked by human figures on pedestals.  

Listed, notwithstanding alterations and additions, as a fine sub-medieval gentry house retaining good traditional character and with fine interior detail including fine plaster overmantels and frieze.