Gwynedd Archaeological
Trust Regional Historic Environment Record
Plas Berw House, Pentre Berw
Primary Reference Number (PRN) : 2726 Trust : Gwynedd Community : Llanfihangel Ysgeifiog Unitary authority : Ynys Mon NGR : SH4658171740 Site Type (preferred type first) : MEDIEVAL BUILDING Status : Scheduled Monument , Listed Building II
Description : Plas Berw house and barn consists of two structures forming adjacent sides of a rectangular courtyard; the earlier to the S is late C15th, the later to the W was built by Sir Thomas Holland in early C17th. Earlier house is now in ruins, was built in c.1480 and appears to have been a single storey building. Upper floor inserted c.1536 and at end of century a square 3 storey building was added on S side at E end. Later house is of 2 storeys with attics and slate covered roofs. Built in 1615 and has been slightly restored in modern times. Condition of later house poor. (RCAHMW, 1937) <4>
Early building is in a state of ruin, whilst the later building has modern additions to the N, W and S and the E side much repaired. <2>
Condition unchanged. Survey of 1967 correct. <3>
For further details see refs. <6> <7>
Also listed Grade II.
15th & 16th Century. 2 storey. Attic. Old small slate roof. Rubble masonry. 17th Century panelling. Mullion transomes. Tower. Walled garden with arched doors. (RCAHMW, Undated)
Plas Berw comprises a ruined medieval hall house dated to about 1480 which was built for Ithel ap Howel and a 1615 mansion built for Sir Thomas Holland (RCAHMW 1937). The fragmentary remains of the walls of the medieval deer park and of gardens associated with Plas Berw are recorded in the Register of Parks and Gardens in Wales. This includes the barn and surrounding enclosures which may have formed part of the north end of the park (Fig. 1). (Morgan, 2014)
Watching brief and subsequent excavation undertaken. The house built in 1615 butted the west wall of the hall and along the west side of the court yard. A cottage with external stone steps to the upper storey was added to the south wall of the house in more recent times when the hall had fallen into ruin. (Longley 1983)
Plas Berw It is a long, five-windowed house, strongly resembling the plainer edifices made in James' reign. The windows are large, mullioned in stone, of six ample lights, the lower row being the larger. The doorway is low and broad, and over it is the beautiful specimen of heraldic sculpture which has been mentioned. This front looks into a small square garden, walled in on the south by the old ruins; on the north by an embattled wall containing the entrance gate, with steps down into the inclosure. Opposite the house, a low hedge separates the garden from a fine deer park, now a sheep walk. At the back of the house rises a square tower, conically. Inside is little of architectural interest (Arch Camb, 1908).
Description, plan and photographs of Plas Berw, Pentre Berw, Ynys Mon (Longley, 2013).
Berw, described in 1360 as in the ''hamlet of Trerbeirdd'', seems to have been regarded as part of Porthamel Manor' (J.W., 99). Berw, though a long way from the parish church, is in Llanidan parish; but there is nothing in the extent of Edward III, by which it can be actually identified as one of the ''Weles'' there enumerated as part of Porthamel. Not date or inscription is discoverable on the oldest portion of the walls now standing at Berw. The masonry is of antique character, massive, and meant to last, as if indeed there had been in those days giants to build it. The material is chiefly coarse grit-stone, cut into huge well-squared blocks, which are built up, especially at the angles, with most commendable regularity, the interstices, where any occur, being filled with shale. In form this old building is a square tower, about fifteen feet each way, having three storeys of low rooms. The doorway faced the south. Eight enormous stones defend the door-frame; a grwat threshold, a huge lintel, and three large blocks on either side, yet the opening is only two feet and a-half wide. On the ground floor, to the west, one, which seems to have been tampered with and enlarged. Above there is to the south a small window and two more to the east; while the top storey of all has only three very small square openings framed with heavy stones, and one window with tho lights, a little larger. All these openings suggest a period when to admit much light was to admit much wind and rain also, when glass was unknown, when men lived out of doors, and women in the dark. Howel was succeeded at Berw by his son Ithel, and may be regarded as the founder of the house, which appears to have been completed in Ithel's time. The property then descended to Ithel's son Owain (J.W., 99). A local tradition that an heiress of Berw 'built a church and a tower, and made a road', which can only be applied to Elinor Verch Ithel ap Howel. There is an old ruined building close to Berw, in which church service was held even in late years. On the brow above Tyddyn Hick there is a tower; she could have been the builder of the aquare house at Berw and could have built some of the 'plenty of bad roads about the neighbourhood' (J.W. 100). Thomas Holland built the present mansion of Berw. 'The date over the entrance door is 1615, and the arms rudely carved there are the arsm of Thomas Holland. Quarterly-1, a lion rampant between seven fleurs de lis; 2, a chevron between three choughs; 4, what appears to be a unicorn: with the letters T.H. and motto 'Deus sola fortitudo mea est'. He made alterations in the older building, and over one window driven into the walls there appear the initials T.H.' The third house of Berw is described as 'of ordinary, but interesting Tudor architecture, having square mullioned windows and a square tower (...) It has all the characteristics of the time of James the first; the stiff little garden, close quadrangle, no view, low rooms (...) It was surrounded by a deer-park, one part of which was high above the house, the other down below it on the marsh. Inside the entrance-hall are found the initials O.H., but they must be attributed to the nephew and succesor of Thomas Holland, not to his father.' (J.W., 1868).
