Plas Machen | |
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![]() Distant view of the house from the Rhymney River circular walk | |
Type | House |
Location | Lower Machen, Newport, Wales |
Coordinates | 51°34′53″N3°06′21″W / 51.5815°N 3.1059°W |
Built | 16th century, with earlier and later parts |
Architectural style(s) | Elizabethan |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
Official name | Plas Machen |
Designated | 3 March 1952 |
Reference no. | 2905 |
Official name | Plas Machen Garden |
Designated | 1 February 2022 |
Reference no. | PGW(Gt)33(NPT) |
Listed Building – Grade II | |
Official name | Nos. 1 & 2 Plas Cottages |
Designated | 18 January 1984 |
Reference no. | 3070 |
Plas Machen is a country house in the hamlet of Lower Machen, to the west of the city of Newport, Wales. The house was the ancestral home of the Morgan family of South Wales prior to their construction of Tredegar House. It is a Grade II* listed building. The gardens are listed at Grade II on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales. A pair of cottages in the grounds of the house are also listed at Grade II. The house remains a private residence and is not open to the public.
The earliest recorded link between the Morgan family of South Wales and Machen is to the building of Plas Machen by "Morgan of Machen who led men of Gwent at Bosworth in 1485". [1] In the following centuries, the family became one of the wealthiest and most powerful in South Wales. [2] [3] [lower-alpha 1] In the 1660s Sir William Morgan (c.1640-1680) rebuilt Tredegar House as the centrepiece of the family's estates in Monmouthshire, Glamorganshire and Brecknockshire. [5] In the 19th century, Sir Charles Morgan was created Baron Tredegar, [6] and in the early 20th century, his son Godfrey was elevated in the peerage as Viscount Tredegar. [7] The viscountcy was revived for his nephew, Courtenay Morgan, in 1926. [8] but became extinct on the death of Courtenay's son, Evan in 1949, after which the family's landholdings in South Wales were sold. [9] [10] [lower-alpha 2]
The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales gives building dates for Plas Machen as the "15th, 16th, 17th centur[ies] and later". [1] Cadw suggests that the house reached its greatest extent in the 1600s, before being superseded by Tredegar House as the family's main residence. [11] It was much reduced in size in the 19th century, before restoration by Habershon and Pite in 1859. The Morgans retained ownership, although they ceased to live at the house by around 1800. [11] [lower-alpha 3] The house, and some associated barns, were restored in the 21st century. [13]
The house is built of rubble stone with brick chimney stacks. Archdeacon Coxe saw the house when it was still complete during a visit in 1800 and recorded his impressions in his two-volume, An Historical Tour in Monmouthshire. Of the interior, Coxe noted a circular room devoted to hunting, with a ceiling centrepiece of the goddess Diana and decorative scenes depicting important local houses and churches, together with hunting images. [11] This was located in part of the house subsequently demolished. The gardens retain their Tudor skeleton, [14] with a series of terraces and axes leading down to a fish pond. [15] While the outline of the formal gardens remains, much has now been returned to pasture. [16]
Plas Machen is a Grade II* listed building. [11] Its gardens and grounds are listed at Grade II on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales. [15] A pair of cottages also have a Grade II listing. [17]
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Bedwellty House is a Grade II-listed house and gardens in Tredegar, in the Sirhowy Valley in south-east Wales. It was built in the early 19th century on the site of an earlier building and subsequently enlarged into its present form by mid-century. The owners donated the house and its grounds to the public at the beginning of the 20th century. They were restored at the beginning of the 21st century. The grounds are included on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, the only estate so listed in Blaenau Gwent.
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Machen House is a country house in the hamlet of Lower Machen, to the west of the city of Newport, Wales. The house was built in 1831 for the Rev. Charles Augustus Morgan, vicar of Machen and scion of the Morgan family of Tredegar House. In the mid-20th century, Machen was the home of the Conservative politician Peter Thorneycroft, who sat as the Member of Parliament for Monmouth. Machen House is a Grade II* listed building. Its gardens and grounds are listed at Grade II on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales. A bothy and a bee bole in the grounds of the house are both listed at Grade II. The house remains a private residence and is not open to the public.
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