Plas Mawr

In a previous post I promised to write about our visit to Plas Mawr so I thought it was about time I got round to showing you some photos from that very sunny day in May.

Plas Mawr, in translation it means great hall, has been described as the finest Elizabethan town house in Britain. 

 Plas Mawr stands on the High Street in the historic walled town of Conwy in North Wales.  It's entrance is straight off the road through a gatehouse and a courtyard before you go up the steps to the front door of the house.

It was built by Robert Wynn who was the third son of local landowners.  He travelled widely in Europe and built up a great fortune through shrewd business activities. He bought the land for the new house in Conwy in 1570.

The house was very fashionable at the time and has influences from both his visits to London and to Europe.   He also used local Welsh plasterers to embellish the house with his initials and emblems and those of his family.  This plaster work has recently been restored at great cost and some of it has been painted in the vibrant colours it would have had originally.

Above The Great Chamber was the ceremonial centre of the late 16th century house.  The colours of the plaster work are as they would have been then but the room is furnished as it would have been according to an inventory of 1665 which was made after the death of Robert Wynn's grandson also called Robert.  In the 18th century the house came, through marriage, into the hands of the Mostyn family who were well known landowners in the area around Conwy and Llandudno.   Later during the 19th century the house was subdivided and rented out for many different uses.  It was at one time a school but also businesses run from there included saddlers and cabinet makers.  In the late 19th century the Royal Cambrian Academy of Arts became concerned about the state of the building and members gradually took out added ceilings and dividing walls and returned the building to how it was in earlier times.  They used the house as an art gallery but by the 1940s the building was becoming harder and more costly to maintain.  In 1993 it was placed in the hands of the state and CADW the Welsh equivalent of English Heritage who have undertaken most of the restoration you can see now when you visit.

More photos below of the inside of the house.

 Kitchen

 Bedrooms

 Inner courtyard above and below

On the top floor a room has been set out as it might have been when the building was subdivided into living and working areas.

There was also quite a large exhibition on water, health and hygiene in Tudor and Stuart Britain and a lot of information about healing herbs.

Plas Mawr is an absolutely delightful place to visit, I found it enchanting and could have spent ages in every room.

Apologies for the photo overload and also the quality of some of them as the sun was very bright through some of the windows and other areas were quite dark.