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We started the day at Plas Uchaf, a large stone house at the foot of Mynydd y Gaer, built in the second half of the sixteenth century and subsequently enlarged. Plas Uchaf, formerly known as ‘Plas Llannefydd’, was the home of the Wynne family, originating at Caerau as descendants of the noble Marchweithan lineage. Standing in front of Plas Uchaf, Gwyn Foulkes Jones told us all about the genealogy of the Wynne family, and connections with the Goodmans of Ruthin, the most prominent member being Edward Wynne (d.1741), who served as High Sheriff of Denbighshire in 1711. Gwyn also described some of the archival sources associated with Plas Uchaf, such as Edward Wynne’s probate inventory of 1741 which provides fascinating insights into the contents of the house. Items such as curtains, a spice cupboard, tea and coffee are all indicators of wealth, but Gwyn also pointed out that you can learn a lot from what is not included in inventories.

This was also an opportunity to study the exterior of the house for clues as to its complex building history. The original house, built in the latter half of the sixteenth century, was a typical ‘Snowdonia House’ with two storeys and end chimneys. Inside, there was a cross-passage with hall above it and service rooms below it. The seventeenth century saw several wings added to Plas Uchaf, including a wing which stood corner-to-corner with the main range but was totally independent of it internally, making this an example of a ‘unit-system’ house. The term ‘unit system’ denotes existing houses which were duplicated or sometimes triplicated to allow two or more households to co-exist on the same site. The high concentration of unit-system houses in Gwynedd can be linked to the ‘ancient custom of north Wales’ which entitled widows to a jointure, to up to a half of their late husbands’ moveable goods, and to maintain an independent household. By the end of the seventeenth century, Plas Uchaf had evolved into a ‘U’-shaped house with a court at the rear, while the eighteenth century saw several windows blocked up and new sash windows inserted.

Next, we headed inside, where we found features from every period in the house’s rich history. We were delighted to see the original screens passage preserved, with two Tudor arches which would have admitted people from the Hall into the service rooms. Also of interest was the fine oak staircase of circa 1680, with barley-twist balusters and a dog-gate at the bottom - it is almost exactly the same as the staircase at nearby Plas Isaf, and was probably made by the same craftsman or workshop. There are also cosmetic additions carried out in the early-eighteenth century by Edward Wynne, presumably when he was High Sheriff, such as arched wall niches.

Inside the house, there was also an opportunity to hear from our host Kerrie, resident at Plas Uchaf since 2016, about the discoveries she has made during the restoration process so far. These include a print of Queen Victoria plastered to some window shutters; a stack of old farm receipts in the barn; and a collection of old shoes and pieces of horse and pig skulls under the stairs. A lively discussion was had about the folk tradition of placing well-worn shoes under the stairs, considered to be a transient place between this world and the next, as a deterrent against bad omens. It was also fascinating to discuss, through the material culture of the house, its transition in the eighteenth century from gentry house to tenanted farm, as Plas Uchaf and its lands became swallowed up in the expanding Coed Coch estate through marriage.  Kerrie shares regular updates on the , which we highly recommend following.

Next, we made the short journey over to Berain, where we had the opportunity to hear about its most famous occupant Catrin of Berain (c.1535-1591), from ISWE Advisory Board Member, Dr Helen Williams-Ellis, whose biography of Catrin is forthcoming. A substantial heiress in her own right, Catrin’s four marriages allied her to some of the most powerful north Walian families including the Salusburys of Lleweni, Wynns of Gwydir and Thelwalls of Plas-y-Ward.  She earned the reputation of ‘Mam Cymru’ (‘Mother of Wales’) by marrying her own children from various marriages to her step children to build an impressive dynasty. Helen showed us a copy of the , painted by Adriaen van Cronenburgh when Catrin lived in Antwerp with her second husband, the Denbigh-born merchant Richard Clough. This is a very early portrait of a Welsh sitter, and shows that Catrin was at the forefront of Renaissance fashions in Wales.

Like Plas Uchaf, Berain is the product of several building phases. The earliest surviving part of the house is a late-fifteenth century range which contained a large open hall with an impressive hammerbeam roof. A second, taller range was built at right angles in the early-sixteenth century, which is reminiscent of Gwydir Castle in Llanrwst. Helen shared her thesis that the later range was added by Catrin’s father Tudur ap Robert in preparation for the neithior (wedding feast) on Catrin’s first marriage to John Salusbury when she was aged about eighteen.

Making our way inside the Hall range we saw plenty of clues that this would have been an open hall of considerable sophistication, including the bressummer of the fireplace with linen fold carvings. Though the range has long been storeyed, upstairs a moulded dais canopy beam and two hammerbeam principals are visible. The latter have carpenters marks but are missing their shield decorations. Gwyn and Helen explained that the amount of local timber incorporated into the house and the size of these timbers would have impressed visitors, and the Welsh bards described such houses as ‘codwyd o gan derwen’ (‘built from a hundred oak trees’).

In the early-sixteenth-century range we found a wooden doorway with a Tudor arch and fine early-Renaissance figurative relief carvings in the spandrels, leading the way to the first-floor Solar known as ‘³¢±ô´Ç´Ú³Ù-²â-²Ñ²¹°ù³¦³ó´Ç²µâ€™&²Ô²ú²õ±è;(‘The Knight’s Chamber’). The impressive room has panelling in small fields and a fine ceiling framed in three ways with ornate moulded beams. Here there was an opportunity to hear from our host Eirian about the challenges and responsibilities that come with caring for an old house like Berain, for example we heard about how the moulded beams had recently been powder blasted and waxed.

Visiting both Plas Uchaf and Berain on the same day presented an opportunity to draw parallels between the two houses. For example, it was noted that both houses were built in naturally sheltered locations, close to a natural water source. In terms of their external appearances, both houses were consistent with the local vernacular, with stone walls, slate roofs, and characterful cyclopean doorways. However, both examples incorporated architectural features which raised them above ‘the vernacular borderline’, to use Paul M. Hunneyball’s term, such as numerous tall chimneys and glazed windows; the fine roll-moulded eaves, chamfered plinth, and forty-five-degree chimney at Berain are particularly impressive.

Both of these houses were absorbed into much larger estates: Plas Uchaf into the Coed Coch estate and Berain into the Lleweni and later Kinmel estate – and subsequently used as farmhouses, which prevented them from being developed in line with the latest ‘country house’ fashions. At Plas Uchaf, the additional unit became a barn; panelling was moved to Coed Coch; and the banqueting house in the garden became a brewhouse.