The History of Plas Uchaf
HISTORIC HOUSES · WELSH HERITAGE · LLANNEFYDD
A house shaped by families, farming and time.
Meaning “Upper Hall” in Welsh, Plas Uchaf is a Grade II* listed historic farmhouse in Llannefydd, Conwy. Its story connects the Wynne and Goodman families, centuries of agricultural life and the changing fortunes of a house and landscape in rural North Wales.
From its surviving architectural features to its connections with some of the region’s notable families, Plas Uchaf offers a glimpse into the history of the Welsh farmhouse and the people who lived in it.
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales link for the walled garden →
Early History
Plas Uchaf stands in the lee of Mynydd y Gaer, above the village of Llannefydd. Its origins as a substantial house date to the second half of the sixteenth century, although its story is bound up with families and estates whose histories reach further back.
The earliest part of the house was built in the form of a two-storey dwelling with prominent end chimneys, characteristic of a type of traditional house found across North Wales. It was not built all at once. During the seventeenth century, new wings and ranges were added, gradually transforming the original building into a much larger house arranged around a courtyard on the farmyard side.
This development can still be read in the building today. Changes in the stonework, blocked openings and the different relationships between its ranges reveal a house adapted over generations rather than built to a single plan. Cadw describes it as a unit-planned house, a form in which separate sections could function as distinct domestic units within one larger complex.
The house was originally associated with Wynne family of Caerau, whose lineage was traced to Marchweithian. In 1665, Plas Uchaf, or 'Plas Llannefydd' as it was called at the time, passed to Meredith Wynne through marriage. His son, Edward Wynne, served as High Sheriff of Denbighshire in 1711. He and his son John were also associated with Nantclwyd y Dre in Ruthin, another historic house with links to the region’s landed families.
Marriage connected the Wynnes with the Goodman family of Ruthin. The wider Goodman story includes Gabriel Goodman, the distinguished Dean of Westminster. These connections place Plas Uchaf within a much wider network of families whose lives and estates helped shape the history of Denbighshire.
The house therefore preserves two closely connected strands of local history: the Goodman family’s earlier association with the property and the subsequent Wynne period, when Plas Uchaf was enlarged and its interiors further embellished.
Architecture and Domestic Life
Plas Uchaf’s history is written not only in the families associated with it, but in the fabric of the building itself. Its successive phases of construction reflect changing needs and fortunes, as an earlier house was enlarged and adapted over the course of the seventeenth century.
Among its most distinctive surviving features is the oak staircase, with its unusual L-shaped arrangement and a small gate at the foot. The house also retains a Jacobean cupboard and other historic details that offer a glimpse of how its rooms were used and furnished.
Documentary evidence adds another layer to this architectural story. An inventory associated with Edward Wynne, dated 1741, records household possessions and provisions, including curtains, a spice cupboard, tea and coffee. Such details offer a glimpse of domestic life beyond the structure of the house itself: the objects kept within it, the comforts its occupants enjoyed and the changing habits of a Welsh household in the early eighteenth century.
Together, the surviving architecture and historical records make Plas Uchaf more than an old farmhouse. They offer an opportunity to explore how a Welsh home evolved over generations, and what its rooms can reveal about the people who lived there.
Read the 'Discovering Old Welsh Houses report on Plas Uchaf →
Tenant Farm
The Williams family’s story at Plas Uchaf began in the early nineteenth century, when Henry Williams became tenant farmer to the Wynne family. From that point, successive generations of Williams farmers made their lives here, with the house remaining at the heart of a working agricultural holding.
The house’s history was not always straightforward. During the Second World War, Plas Uchaf accommodated evacuees and Italian and German prisoners of war, who occupied rooms in the attic. The formal garden was also put to a more practical use during the war, its ornamental character giving way to food production and the needs of the farm.
In the 1960s and early 1970s, Plas Uchaf took on another role, welcoming paying guests as a bed and breakfast. But maintaining an old house of this scale was becoming increasingly difficult. By the late 1970s, the cost of essential repairs threatened its future.
Help came in 1979, when a grant from Cadw funded repairs to the roof. Further work followed, including repairs to the south-facing gable, helping safeguard the listed building for the generations that followed.
The house survived, carrying the marks of its changing uses: a home shaped by earlier families, a farmhouse at the centre of a working landscape, a wartime refuge and, for a time, a place of hospitality. Its story continues beyond these chapters, with the next phase of care and conservation forming a new part of Plas Uchaf’s history.
The Story Continues
The history of Plas Uchaf is still being written. Today, the work of caring for the farmhouse, garden and surrounding landscape forms the next chapter in its long story.
Explore the restoration of Plas Uchaf →
