Plas Mynach is a large country house in
Barmouth
Barmouth ( cy, Abermaw (formal); ''Y Bermo'' (colloquial)) is a seaside town and community (Wales), community in the county of Gwynedd, northwestern Wales, lying on the estuary of the Afon Mawddach and Cardigan Bay. Located in the Historic coun ...
,
Gwynedd
Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, and C ...
,
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
. It is designated by
Cadw
(, a Welsh verbal noun meaning "keeping/preserving") is the historic environment service of the Welsh Government and part of the Tourism and Culture group. works to protect the historic buildings and structures, the landscapes and heritage s ...
as a Grade II*
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
, and stands in a prominent position overlooking the sea.
History
The house was designed in 1883 by the
Chester
Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...
architect
John Douglas for W. H. Jones.
Architecture
Plas Mynach is built in local stone with a
slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
roof.
[ Its most distinctive features are a low spreading tower with a stair ]turret
Turret may refer to:
* Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building
* Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon
* Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope
* Mi ...
and stepped gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
s.[ Internally "the hall, staircase and landing provide a classic example of Douglas's domestic ]joiner
A joiner is an artisan and tradesperson who builds things by joining pieces of wood, particularly lighter and more ornamental work than that done by a carpenter, including furniture and the "fittings" of a house, ship, etc. Joiners may work in ...
y".[ The door knocker came from ]Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
.[
]
External features
The lodge to the house, also designed by Douglas for Jones, is designated at Grade II.
Critique
In 1884 the architect Raffles Davison stated that the house "very nearly realised to me the idea of a perfect country house" and inside was "one of the most charming halls I have seen".[Quoted in ] In his biography of Douglas, Hubbard Hubbard may refer to:
Places Canada
*Hubbard, Saskatchewan
*Hubbards, Nova Scotia
Canada/United States
* Mount Hubbard, a mountain on the Alaska/Yukon border
*Hubbard Glacier, a large freshwater glacier in Alaska and Yukon
Greenland
*Hubbard Gla ...
states it has "a strength and austere simplicity unusual in Douglas's work".[ The description in the listing refers to it as "one of the more important country houses by John Douglas, in an apparently little-altered condition".][
]
See also
*List of houses and associated buildings by John Douglas
John Douglas (1830–1911) was an English architect based in Chester, Cheshire. His designs included new churches, alterations to and restoration of existing churches, church furnishings, new houses and alterations to existing houses, and a v ...
References
Citations
Sources
*
{{refend
Barmouth
Grade II* listed buildings in Gwynedd
Houses in Gwynedd
Grade II* listed houses
Houses completed in 1883
John Douglas buildings