Plas Mawr
`A Worthy Plentiful House'


Plas Mawr, or the 'Great Hall' as its name unashamedly announces, is one of the grandest and most ambitious houses ever raised in a Welsh historic town. Built in the heart of prosperous sixteenth-century Conwy, the earliest plasterwork at Plas Mawr bears the date 1577 the year in whichFrancis Drake set out an his circumnavigation of the globe.
lt is a dwelling of noble proportions, where the decoration and design betray clear signs of its creator's experiences, travels, and links with the court circle. At the same time, it is a building that displays traits that are typical of the Tudor Renaissance style as it emerged in Wales. So unspoilt are its glorious features, Plas Mawr stands today as the finest surviving town house of the Elizabethan era (1558-1603) to be found anywhere in the British Isles.
This 'worthy plentiful house' was the creation of Robert Wynn (d. 1598), whose initials — R.W.— appear so frequently an its ornamental plasterwork. Born as the third son of a modestly well-to-do north Wales family, whose home lay at Gwydir in the Conwy valley, the prospects for Wynn's career would not have looked particularly auspicious. He was, however, tolead a full and remarkable life, rising as one of the brightest stars among the gentry of Tudor Wales.
Robert Wynn eventually settled in Conwy, which, even as late as the mid-sixteenth century, still remained in essence an English borough. Although Welshmen had Jong infiltrated these bastions of alien settlement and influence in north Wales, as late as 1506 they were still forbidden to own land within the town.
But Wynn was clearly a man of talent and substance, and one who was willing to seize the opportunities presented to him. He became, too, a person of taste and experience, and he chose to invest greatly in his new house and its lavish decoration. Plas Mawr was to become a bold reflection and display of the position Robert Wynn held in late sixteenth-century Welsh society.
By the late 1630s, the house had been inherited by Wynn's grandson, who was also named Robert. Following his death in 1664, a very full inventory was taken of the house and its contents.This document has provided much of the evidence for the way in which Plas Mawr is presented to visitors today.

The Building of Plas Mawr

The borough of Conwy was established by King Edward 1 (1272-1307), with its earliest charter granted in 1284. Enclosed by its fine town walls, and protected by the massive royal castle, the borough provided a secure base
for prosperous trade by English merchants and craftsmen.The town was divided into rectangular blocks by a grid of four major and several minor streets.The blocks were then further subdivided into individual burgage or house plots rented to the new immigrant settlers. Aberconwy House, the last surviving late medieval dwelling in the town, gives an impression of the size of these early houses.

Phases of Construction

When Robert Wynn bought the 'mansion house' from Hugh Mershe in 1570, he acquired an already substantial property. lt occupied the middle burgage plot fronting what was then Jugler's Lane, now Crown Lane. In 1576, Robert acquired the plot to the north, situated on the corner of Pepper Street, now Chapel Street. This enabled him to begin to build Plas Mawr. The north range of the house, dated 1576 on the outside, and whose plasterwork was completed in 1577, was an addition to the existing mansion. lt contained two main bedrooms, a kitchen—brewhouse, a parlour, and accommodation for servants.When, in 1580, Robert came to complete the main house by adding the central and southern ranges, the earlier block would have provided a seif-contained apartment during the building work. Mershe's house was demolished, and the full extent of the new house achieved. Access was gained via a porch on Jugler's Lane and from here a passage led into the upper courtyard.The full magnificence of the main elevation would have been hidden in such a narrow street.
lt was not until 1585 that Wynn acquired the corner plot, which lay on High Street to the south.The property here had been owned by Robert Laythwood, who had no doubt stood out for an inflated price.This acquisition allowed Robert Wynn to build his gatehouse as a bold architectural statement facing directly onto Conwy's main thoroughfare. Wynn's visitors would now have entered Plas Mawr via the gatehouse, up the steps in the lower courtyard, and through a newly created doorway into the hall. Further minor acquisitions of land allowed Robert to build the dairy on the west side of the upper courtyard, and to create formal gardens to the north of the main dwelling. Robert also owned a barn, orchards and gardens outside the town walls, and he had rights to graze his animals on the town fields.
The piecemeal acquisition of varbus parcels of land led to a staged programme of construction. We should remember, however, that the

profession of architect was not properly established in Elizabethan times. Robert may therefore have commissioned a 'plot' or ground plan, and perhaps a main elevation from a mason in the royal works or perhaps in favour at tourt.
He may also have acquired a number of Flemish or Italian architectural books from which decorative details could be drawn.Wynn might also be expected to have drawn upon his own experience of the architecture of much of northern Europe as well as the design of Bisham Abbey,Philipp Hobys house (his patron).Armed with this information, he would have instructed a local master mason or master carpenter to supervise the different stages of the building programme.This approach probably explains the unity of the plan of the main house, but the differente in the details of the north range from the remainder.
Plas Mawr lies on a sloping site, which had to be cut into three terraces to take the different phases of building.The burgage plots themselves may already have been continuously occupied for some three centuries and any earlier buildings would now have been swept away.
A systematic network of drains was laid out to tope with the problem of groundwater.

Building Skills


Four main building trades were involved in the overall construction: masons, carpenters, plasterers and slaters; with specialist carvers, glaziers and painters also required to add the finishing details.

Masons

The rubble stone for the walls came from the hills behind the town and the finer stone for the dressings around the doors and windows was brought from Deganwy on the opposite side of the Conwy estuary.When we compare the details of the north range with those of the remainder of the house, it is clear that there are variations in the design of the windows and other features. This implies that a different mason was responsible for the two phases.

Carpenters

Plas Mawr retains a wealth of heavy carpentry in its floor structures, its screens and its massive roof trusses. Most of this woodwork carries
a series of carpenters' marks, showing that the various features were prefabricated in a 'framing yard', away from the house, and then
brought on site for assembly. For the carpenters working in the confined spaces in the middle of Conwy, this must have made raising these heavy wooden structures by block and tackte on timber scaffolding a difficult task. Several varying styles of carpenters' marks occur, so that it is possible to trace the work of different craftsmen around the house.
Some features — including the so-called double pegging of the roof trusses are unknown beyond Plas Mawr and several contemporary buildings in the Conwy valley, which may imply that one master craftsman was used to oversee the entire project.
Moreover, the style of the decorated screens in the north range of the house bears a close resemblance to work in similar structures surviving in fifteen other houses and two churches in north Wales. All of these other examples can be dated between 1571 and 1590.The name of the Welsh master craftsman responsible is unknown, but Plas Mawr is undoubtedly a powerful testament to his skill. Tree-ring dating has revealed that most of the timber used in the house was felled no more than a year or two before it was required. All of it seems to have been derived from trees growing higher up the Conwy valley.

Plasterers

The plastering of houses, and particularly the use of decorative plasterwork, was introduced to England by King Henry VIII. Highly fashionable, and at first restricted by taste and finances to the noble or courtier classes, its use slowly moved down the social scale during the second half of the sixteenth century. By the 1570s it

was beginning to be adopted by the gentry and the merchant classes. Plasterwork provided a relatively cheap method of finishing the growing number of rooms in these middledass houses.The moulded and cast decoration could be painted to imitate carved wood, or even the exotic stone decoration used in the more magnificent courtier houses. lt was a way of introducing lots of colour and emblematic devices, both so beloved by the Elizabethans, into the internal decoration of their homes.Plas Mawr has long been recognized as an early and almost complete survival of this type of decoration.
Plasterers were itinerant craftsmen, often moving as a group: one master, two journeymen and several apprentices. Robert Wynn may have had to go as far as London to obtain their services. By identifying the individual emblems used in different schemes, it is possible to trace the movements of the group that came to work at Plas Mawr.They arrived at the house in 1577, probably went to work on undated schemes recorded at Robert's family house of Gwydir, and returned to Plas Mawr in 1580. In 1582 they redecorated the hall at Maenan Hall, the home of Wynn's cousin, Maurice Kyrfin (d. 1598). Interestingly, many of the same motifs used by this group of plasterers, were to reappear at a house in St Peter's Street at lpswich in Suffolk, dating to about 1600.
Nearly all the walls of Plas Mawr were plastered internally and rendered externally, perhaps accounting for up to 100 tons of lime plaster in total, and with many bundles of animal hair mixed into it to bind it together.

Slaters

Slating was the fourth of the main craft skills employed during the construction of Plas Mawr. We should bear in mind, however, that over the past four hundred years, the house may have had four or perhaps even more replacement roof coverings; the original slating is lost to us. Nevertheless, from nooks and crannies within the house, some of the original head-pegged grey slates, a few oak pegs and Split oak laths have been recovered, and these have revealed details of how the first roof was constructed.
A French nobleman named Creton remarked on a visit to the town by King Richard II in 1399 'that at Conway ... there is much slate on the houses'. In 1570, Sion Tudur complained that a thatched roof was cold for a man of station and that red slates were the fittest roof for such a man's house. So for a man of Robert Wynn's aspirations, slate was the only choice and his extensive estates in Dolwyddelan were a source of the grey Ffestiniog type of slate employed in the building.
The slaters would have been responsible for quarrying, carting and then shipping the slate down the river Conwy, as well as laying the roof. For the Elizabethan roof, manydifferent sizes of slate would have been selected, just as in the new roof on the house, where a total of forty-three different sizes has been used.When Plas Mawr required reroofing during the eighteenth century, the slaters left a tally etched into the plaster of the south range attic: a total of 66,203 slates was used. Head-pegged Welsh slate roofs are now a great rarity and there is a danger that the evidente of this craft, which pre-dated what became a world-famous industry, will be lost for ever.



Building Peculiarities

lt was probably the lack of any form of full-time professional supervision over the building work that led to one or two mistakes creeping into the construction. Such mistakes or oversights could be as simple as one of the carpenters not completing his task an the carving of the screen in the chamber over the parlour.The most puzzling part of the building, however, may now seem a peculiarity since it is likely to represent a planning error of somewhat greater significance. lt is a riddle that concerns the roof of the house.
The plaster ceiling of the great chamber is the largest and most elaborate at Plas Mawr, and it bears the date 1580. Directly above this ceiling is an elegant timber roof, with great arch-braced collar trusses, chamfered and pierced, and clearly intended to be seen and admired. lt is a style of roof that was commonly found in north Wales churches and great houses from the mid-fifteenth century until the early sixteenth century.Thus, it is something of a surprise to learn that tree-ring dating has shown that the timber for the Plas Mawr roof was felled as late as 1578, just before it was needed for the construction of the house.As they rest an the east wall of the building, the ends of the huge trusses rest an pairs of timbers running right along the wall-top. But an the opposite wall, the Feet of two of the trusses are buried in the stonework of the stair towers, and these form very ugly connections.
Considered as a whole, the evidence would appear to suggest that Robert Wynn originally intended to have his great chamber open to the decorated wooden roof.The carpenter was instructed and then began to make up the roof somewhere away from the site. He chose to use a regional style with which he was familiar or copied the roof surviving at Robert's father's house at Gwydir. Meanwhile, the mason built up the walls of the house, adding and raising the stair towers. Since he is unlikely to have had accurate drawings, he perhaps did not realize the towers would rise up through part of the roof space. Inevitably, the roof would no longer look elegant. One might imagine a heated debate, but a solution had to be found. In the end, the plasterer was called in to install a ceiling that would hide the unfortunate compromise above.

The Later History of Plas Mawr


The Seventeenth Century:
The House Contents Described

On Robert Wynn's death, his wife, Dorothy, and her family continued to live in Plas Mawr. But a long legal wrangle concerning his will was to follow. His executor, Sir Roger Mostyn(d. 1642), was charged with managing Robert's rural estates. From these, he was to provide an allowance for Dorothy and a yearly sum of £20 to ensure the education and bringing up of Wynn's eldest son, John. Over a number of years, a sum of £400 was to be assembled towards the marriage money or dowry of three of his daughters, Katherine, Elen and Sydney, with the same figure for his younger son,Thomas. A further £500 was to be found for his youngest daughter, Mary.
The annual income from the estates amounted to some £220 6s. 8d. In ten years, a total of more than £2,200 had accumulated, just about covering all of the bequests in Robert's will. However, Dorothy, her new husband,William Williams of Vaynol(d. 1630),and her children charged Sir Roger Mostyn with mishandling the estates and their rental income. The dispute was to rumble an until 1630. Asa consequence, for thirty years, there can have been little money to initiate any changes or improvements to Plas Mawr and its contents.
By 1637, Plas Mawr had been inherited by Robert Wynn's grandson, who was also named Robert (1616-64). He achieved some local prominente by becoming deputy mayor of Conwy, but never moved an the national or international stage like his grandfather. Following his death in 1664, an inventory of the contents of Plas Mawr was made.This has proved a most important document in naming and understanding the use of the different rooms in the house.The appraisers, who prepared the inventory, made their way in a logical route around the building and it is therefore possible to reconstruct the course that they followed. Unfortunately, the inventory does not list everything, only the small items of furniture, furnishings and other goods. Robert's will, which is associated with the inventory, explains why, since he left all his goods and belongings to his wife and elder son:
except all such standing Bedsteads,Tables, fformes, Dressers, cuboards, Binns and grates. My will being that they shall remayn there as heyre looms

lt is this inventory that has informed the decisions taken an refurnishing the half, great chamber, kitchen, pantry, chamber over the parlour and the upper studio in the house.
In 1683, the younger Robert Wynn's daughter, Elin (d. 1713), married Robert Wynne of Bodysgallen and Berthddu. Plas Mawr was
to become only the third most important house within her husband's extensive estate. From that time, it is not likely to have been lived in much by the family. In turn, the Wynnes were to marry into the Mostyn family and it is the present Lord Mostyn who remains the freeholder of Plas Mawr.

The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Plas Mawr was subdivided and rented out for a variety of uses. In the eighteenth century, part of the gatehouse was used as a courthouse and the house itself was let to poor families. A correspondent to the Gentleman's Magazine records that in 1770 an upper room contained a collection of female clothing, cases of high hats and several bows, as well as an old bedstead. By this time, much of the original contents had been stolen or removed.
The census returns, trade directories and rentals of the nineteenth century give a much more detailed picture of who was living and working in Plas Mawr. From 1839 until 1886, the white and great chambers were occupied as a school for infants, with two of the teachers
and a caretaker renting rooms in the gatehouse. The school caused some problems for the other main tenant, Joseph Williams, along with his family and servants. Williams began his career as a joiner but later became a farmer and dairyman. His wife, Elizabeth, complained that the children threw stones into the milk churns in the yard, and one of their servantsfeil through the ceiling of the great chamber into the schooiroom. Elsewhere in the main house lived Jane Roberts, a washerwoman, and her two sons; a labourer; a railwayman; and two families called Jones. Indeed, inthe 188 I census, twenty-five people were recorded as living at Plas Mawr and the house also accommodated the school and two businesses. One of the businesses was run by Thomas Thomas, a saddler, and in part of the gatehouse the Owens and later the Williams family were joiners and cabinet makers.
Surprisingly, two hundred years of multiple occupation has left relatively little impact upon Plas Mawr. Some rooms were partitioned

into smaller spaces and a staircase was created.The new porch and alcove above it were added on Crown Lane, and windows were bricked up.There are, however, one or two more subtle traces of these tenancies. The surviving attic doors, for example, have numbers painted on them, and in the kitchen and the red chamber there are traces of wall painting designed to imitate wallpapers of the late eighteenth century. Several ceilings were replaced and some new ceilings added to the formerly exposed beams and joists. Trapped between these new ceilings and the floors above were many hundreds of objects, either dumped in the voids or having slipped between the floorboards, and these give an indication of how the rooms were used at the time. In the great chamber, for instance, conservation works led to the discovery of hundreds of state pencils, a few ruled school slates, and marbles and other toys dropped by the children.

Restoration and Conservation

In the later nineteenth century, senior figures within the Royal Cambrian Academy of Art, led by Clarence Whaite, grew concerned about the condition and future of Plas Mawr. In 1885, they proposed that the Academy take on the building as its headquarters. Up to that time,
the Academy had held its exhibitions in different parts of Wales and a need was felt for a permanent home. Negotiations continued
for two years, and in 1887 Lord Mostyn offered the Academy a thirty-year renewable lease, on condition that its members 'keep the building in the same state of repair'.The Academy appointed Arthur Baker ( 1842-97)and his young nephew, Herbert Baker(1862-1946) later an assistant to Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944) and an eminent architect in his own right — as their honorary architects. During 1885, the Bakers prepared a very detailed survey of the house and its decoration,

which was published three years later.Their volume has provided an extremely valuable record in subsequent campaigns of repairs and conservation. Interestingly, Herbert Baker was to write in his autobiography that his youthful experience at Plas Mawr was to foster a 'tendency to employ heraldry and symbols' in the decoration of his buildings.
In 1896, the Academy built the Victoria Gallery, a large brick and wooden building originally attached to the north-west corner of the house but demolished in 1995.The gallery was opened with a grand fancy dress ball held throughout Plas Mawr. Regular exhibitions of members' work were hung in all of the main rooms of the house and the gallery, and the house was open to visitors. A collection of local furniture was assembled and displayed. A series of curator—secretaries was appointed, the first at Plas Mawr being a local man, the impressive Mr J. R. Furness

(d. 1921) who worked for the Academy for thirty-three years. lt was Mr Furness who supervised the erection of the diamond jubilee weathervane, wrote the early guidebooks to the house and began the conservation of the plasterwork.The celebrated journal, Country Life, featured the house in its pages in 1908, and the importance of Plas Mawr as a remarkable Elizabethan dwelling became properly recognized.
Arthur and Herbert Baker must have undertaken some of the works to remove evidence for the subdivision of the house into tenements and they made general repairs to the fabric. For the Academy, a voluntary body, it became a constant battle to keep the building maintained. From the late 1940s, the minnte books of the Academy record ever-increasing expenditure an the buildings.The dressed stonework of the windows and doorways was very badly decayed, and leaks were a serious problem.Weaknesses in the timber beams in the cellars and the roofs required propping and tying together, and the decorated ceilings became detached from the joists
that supported them.

All in all, although Plas Mawr had remained almost unaltered since its construction by Robert Wynn in the late sixteenth century,
it had also gone largely without maintenance of any great scale.With grant-aid from the Ministry of Works and charitable trusts, and with money raised from its own resources, the Royal Cambrian Academy of Art spent nearly forty years making what repairs it could. Eventually, the scale of work became too great. In 1993 the Academy moved next door into its new headquarters in the converted Seion Chapel and Lord Mostyn placed Plas Mawr in guardianship of the State. Cadw, the historic environment service of the Welsh Assembly Government,subsequently undertook the complete conservation of the house and now maintains Plas Mawr as one of the finest Elizabethan townhouses in Britain.

The Working ofthe Household

The Tudor Household

Likewise in the houses of Knights, gentlemen, merchantmen, and some other wealthy citizens, it is not geason (uncommon) to behold generally their great provision of tapestry. Turkey work, pewter, brass, fine linen, and thereto costly cupboards of plate.

The Description of England, William Harrison ( 1577).

William Harrison's observations an Elizabethan households remind us that the bare rooms created by Robert Wynn at Plas Mawr served as mere shells spaces in which he might display his wealth, his pedigree and connections, and in which he could play host to his family and friends. lndeed, the value of the contents in the rooms at Wynn's Plas Mawr was probably equivalent to the sum he invested in the constructionof the house. lt is both the building and its contents that provide the context for understanding the working of a great late sixteenth-century household.
A Tudor household was a carefully structured organization, treated by its master almost as an extended family.The largest and most complex household of all was the royal court. Here the principal servants were lords of the realm, each controlling a huge budget andan enormous staff. Access to the monarch and senior courtiers was strictly controlled and the royal palaces were carefully planned to enable different levels of the household to act independently. Service in the royalhousehold was an honour. lt provided a position of influence the key to wealth with offices offen passing from father to son.
The great magnates of the realm also maintained huge households, with personnel numbering up to two hundred or more.
In some cases, the size of the household competed with the court itself. Robert Wynn began his career as part of the household of Sir Walter Stonor and for much of his adult life he served in that of Sir Philip Hoby, where he would have observed the great courts of Europe at work.Within his own household at Plas Mawr, Robert would no doubt have adapted these practices to his own circumstances.

Sets of household regulations survive from Tudor times, setting out the duties of each servant and how they were to behave towards their master, his family and guests. Such regulations were supplemented by printed books of 'nurture', 'dietary' and 'courtesy', which provided practical guides an how a gentleman should behave and look after himself and his household. Most of these books of manners derive from works published in the Renaissance courts of Italy, the most influential being The Book of the Courtierby Baldesar Castiglione (d. 1529), translated and first published in English in 1561 by Sir Philip Hoby's brother, Sir Thomas.
The definition of a gentleman, like Robert Wynn, was someone of wealth and leisure. Every gentleman therefore needed servants to run his household and his estate.The two surviving versions of Robert Wynn's will provide an indication of the make-up of his household. Robert showed particular favour to his nephew, Richard Wynn (d. 1617), later archdeaconof Bangor This implies that Richard was the principal servant, best regarded as a steward or secretary. Robert made grants of land to Rhydderch ap Robert and his son, Humphrey ap Rhydderch, both of whom he referred to as 'my man'. On the occasion of her marriage, marking the end of her service, Robert gave a
substantial dowry of cattle to Dorothy Hookes, who had perhaps acted as a lady-in-waiting to Dorothy, his wife. He gave the same to Margaret ferch Ithel at her marriage and she was referred to as 'my maid'. Finally, to his men servants in livery, who dwelt in Plas Mawr, he gave two cattle, or double their annual wages. And to every woman servant dwelling in the house, one cow or double her annual wage. Livery refers not only to the colourful uniform the male servants would have worn, but also to the daily ration of food and drink to which the whole household was entitled, in addition to their modest wages.Taken together, this implies that the household at Plas Mawr comprised between eleven and twenty servants.

The Servant Rooms and their Functions

Considering the planning and arrangements at Plas Mawr, we can see where the servants lived and worked.The gatehouse had a suite
of rooms at ground- and first-floor levels, which was set aside for the steward, Richard Wynn. He would have administered Robert Wynn's
household, rural estates and financial transactions. The isolated room alongside the gatehouse passage (now the ticket point and Shop)
was for the porter, who controlled the main entrance, and greeted and announced visitors.
In the main house, the two cellars were where the wine and beer were stored.The rear cellar contains a large boiler either for providing hot water for laundry, or for cooking the daily pottage (a thick soup) or boiled meats, the staple diet of the household.The cellar was reached from the buttery, the province of the butler, and it was in the buttery that drink was put into flagons and pitchers to be taken

to the table. All the valuable silver and pewter plate, and the candlesticks, were also stored in this room to be distributed around the hause as required.
By the end of the Elizabethan period, and certainly by 1665 (the date chosen for the current displays in the furnished rooms), the half was no longer the main family room at Plas Mawr. lt would have been used as the servants' dining and sitting room, overseen by 'my man', Rhydderch ap Robert. Most of the remainder of the ground floor was occupied by rooms concerned with the production of food and drink.The kitchen had a huge botterie de cuisine for the cook, perhaps two or three undercooks, and a boy to turn the spits in the rack. All the dry goods, flour, grain, bread, satt, bacon andso on, together with the meat and game, were stored and partly prepared in the pantry.Water came from the well in the courtyard.The cook may also have been responsible for brewing and baking in the brewhouse.The dairy was where the butter and cheese were made, and fromthe equipment listed in the 1665 inventory, we know it acted as the laundry. Robert Wynn had cows grazing an the town fields, so frech milk would come in twice a day. He also owned orchards and gardens both inside and outside the walls, and a barn, where sacks of grain, fodder and perhaps his horses were kept. His family leased a fishtrap in the estuary.
Taken together, these facilities would have provided a wide range of fresh foods and their preparation would have been the responsibility of many more servants. Conwy was a small town, and although it had a weekly market it could not provide many of the staple foods required by such a large household.Wynn's steward would certainly have ordered more unusual and exotic foods — items such as spices, sultanas and sugar — from merchants trading as far afield as Chester and Beaumaris.
In its planning, Plas Mawr provided for far greater efficiency in the storage, preparation and distribution of food and drink than had been the case in medieval castles and manor houses.William Harrison wrote in 1577 that 'the mansion houses of our country towns ....

have neither dairy, stable and brewhouse annexed unto them under the same roof — as in many places beyond the sea ...Indeed,
Plas Mawr presages the growing sophistication of household planning as it developed over the next generation. In due course, service rooms were to be grouped together in sub-basements, and with separate back staircases to the family rooms above.The attics in the north and south ranges of the building provided four substantial bedchambers for the servants. Each was set out in dormitory fashion, with the men and women sleeping in separate quarters.

The Wynn Cupboard

This is the most remarkable piece of furniture surviving from Tudor Wales. lt was made locally for John Wyn ap
Maredudd, Robert's father, around 1545, and stood in the Wynn's family home, Gwydir Castle, until 1921.The front of the cupboard, more properly termed a buffet, is wonderfully carved with heraldic devices and emblems relating to the Wynns. Many of the same emblems reappear in the plasterwork at Plas Mawr. A white linen cupboard cloth would have been laid across the shelf and all the Wynn's best silver and gilt plate placed on top as the prelude to any fegst or great occasion.The top table would have been served with wine and some of the more sumptuous dishes direct from the buffet. Once the meal was finished, the plate and best linen would have been stored in the cupboards and drawers for safe keeping.
In 1921, it was sold to the American newspaper magnate and eccentric collector,William Randolph Hearst(d. 1951). lt was later sold to the Scottish shipowner and collector, Sir William Burrell(d. 1958).
The Wynn cupboard is now in the Burrell Collection, Glasgow, and an accurate replica is on display at Plas Mawr.

The Family Rooms

Robert and Dorothy Wynn, and their family and guests, would have occupied the rooms an the first floor of the house. Guests arriving at Plas Mawr would have entered by way of the gatehouse. From there, the route through which they would have been led demonstrated both the sophistication and the growing magnificence of the house. In the gatehouse, the Tudor Renaissance detailing is at its most successful.The royal arms are placed immediately over the outer doorway and over the inner door there is the family molto in Latin and Greek, which translates as Bear: Forbear. Greeted by the porter, the guest party would be led through the courtyard and up the steps and terrace, into the hall.Today this room has been quite sparsely furnished and there is little by way of colour apart from the exuberant plaster overmantel, which proclaims the Wynn family's importance.Either met by Robert Wynn, his steward or his man, the guests would then be led upstairs to the great chamber, the ceremonial pivot of Plas Mawr. lt is the largest, best-lit and mostrichly furnished room in the house. Referred to as the dining room in the 1665 inventory, the fixed benching around the walls, together with

nineteen chairs and a leather couch, made for extensive seating arrangements.
Robert Wynn was known for keeping a 'worthy plentiful house', and as Andrew Boorde wrote in 1542 'men wyll call hym lyght-witted, to set up a great house, and is not able to kepe man nor mouse'. Giving hospitality and feasting within the great chamber would have reinforced Robert Wynn's status within his own family, as well as among the gentry and professional classes of north Wales.The preparation of the table and serving of the meals were formal occasions in which the servants in livery had specific roles.The butler would bring the carefully folded white linen cloths from the buttery to cover the tables and the cupboard. Next he would bring the principal salt cellar (Robert had a double silver one), and the carving knives to set before his master, along with a basket of bread the upper crust cut from the top of loaves cooked in the oven.The pewter and silver plate would be placed upon the cupboard, and a basin and towel offered to the master and then his guests to wash their hands.
The carver would then serve the first mess. This would comprise a range of dishes: meats boiled and roasted, vegetables — including the ubiquitous pottage — along with several sweets. The ewer would serve the drinks from the cupboard. Guests might try small portions of the various dishes and then the first mess was taken away, with the leftovers eaten later by other members of the household. Next, there would often follow a second mess, which included more exquisite items such as game, poultry and fish. After each mess, crumbs and debris would be swept into wicker voiders to leave the tables clean for the next course. A meal would end with a dessert of fruit, cheese or custards and sweet wine.The servants would carefully clear the table and, on special occasions, a fresh clean white tablecloth and towels would be laid out, with water for the family and guests to wash their hands.
Following the meal, the furniture mightbe pushed back against the walls to provide space for entertainment, such as gaming, music, dancing, or a bard reciting. Eventually, Robert and Dorothy Wynn would withdraw to their two private rooms, which are situated behind the great chamber inthe north range. Both these private rooms had beds, but they also aded as sitting rooms. Similar, but less highly decorated accommodation was provided for guests in another two rooms at the opposite end of the great chamber There was one more family room, the parlour, situated on the ground floor in the north-east corner of the house.This was probably laid out as another bed-sitting room and may have acted as a more intimate room for receiving guests.
The house offered other facilities for the amusement of the Wynn family and their guests. They might, for example, climb the tower and have a range of prospeds over the borough of Conwy, its castle, the river and its ships, with the mountains beyond.The lower courtyard terrace connected with the rear of the gatehouse and led to the top-floor gallery. On wet and cold days, this would have provided a room for gentle exercise, or where the ladies might sew or read. In the summer, the family would walk in the formal gardens laid out around the north side of the house, or perhaps take a stroll on the town walls.
The 1580s were a time of display and conspicuous consumption by the Elizabethan middle and upper classes.The increasing wealth of the period was invested in new houses, rich fittings, household goods, and generous hospitality.The household had to evolve from the much more communal arrangements of the Middle Ages to cope with the increasing desire for privacy and the more sophisticated pastimes of Elizabeth l's reign. Plas Mawr provides a vivid reminder of this period.

The Decorated Plasterwork

The decorated plasterwork is one of the glories of Plas Mawr. In all, there are five rooms with decorated ceilings, friezes and overmantels, and two rooms where cornices survive but the ceilings are lost.The most elaborate decoration survives in the parlour and in the two upper chambers in the north range, dated 1577. Here, twenty-two different heraldic emblems are placed within geometrically patterned ceilings and wall-panels. Elizabethans were fascinated with emblems and Sir Geoffrey Whitneywrote in 1586 that an emblem should be `something obscure to be perceived, whereby when with further consideration it is understood, it may the greater delight the beholder'.
Many of the emblems and badges are of the princes of Gwynedd from whom Robert and his wife Dorothy claimed descent: for example, the standing eagle, the fleur-de-lis, the severed Englishman's head and the stag's head. Others refer to people prominent in north Wales: the Tudor rose, the bear and ragged stall for the earl of Leicester, and the boar for Katheryn de Berain. Others represent local families, such as the owl for the Hookes of Conwy.

The emblems are placed in geometric patterns of ribs or inside engaged classical columns or pilasters; many are derived from pattern books. Every room is embellished with the date and the initials of Robert Wynn and/or of his wife, Dorothy Griffith: sometimes mixed up or shown as mirror images. Fewer emblems were used in the later central and south ranges and greater attention is given to those of the Wynns.A new device also appeared — the caryatid, the partly naked female figure. Originally a Greek classical motif, it became debased through images in pattern books and in the cartoon-like treatment by the plasterer.
The plasterwork confirms the social status of the different rooms. In those rooms where Robert would have entertained his equals or betters — the great chamber and the parlour — the garter and royal arms are given prominence over the fireplace, and the Wynn arms relegated to the ceiling or frieze. In the halt, where he would have met his household, or social inferiors; and in the private bedchambers, the Wynn arms are displayed an the overmantels and the royal badges and other emblems restricted to subservient positions.

Miles on this day: 71

ca.22°C - cloudy