A wealth of history

The flamboyant Renaissance architectural style of Plas Coch reflects strong Flemish influence.

Plas Coch is made of red sandstone, quarried on-site, close to the house.  Extensions were made in the Victorian period, in the same style.

Historical Context

The house was built at a time of transition and change in Anglesey.  As memories of the Edwardian Conquest (1282) and Glendower Rebellion (1400-1415) faded, many native Welsh appear to have reconciled themselves to the inevitable dominance of their more powerful English neighbours.  The accession of the Tudors to the English throne in 1485 made this more palatable – the Tudor having originated from Anglesey.

Increasingly from then on, enterprising Welsh gentry involved themselves in local government and professional careers in London, whilst retaining their Welsh heritage.  The more successful amongst them also accumulated estates and substantial new houses, with the aim of bringing prestige to their families.

Plas Coch was one such houses and estate.

The Hughes of Plas Coch were direct descendents of Llywarch ap Bran, a key official of the 12^th century King of North Wales, Owain Gwynedd.

Llywarch’s family had controlled the surrounding area of Porthamel and Llanedwen for many generations, perhaps as far back as the 4^th century.

In the late 12^th century, one of Llywarch’s sons, Cadwgan, settled on the site of what is now Plas Coch.  Another, Iorweth, settled nearby at what is now Plas Porthamel.  Over the subsequent centuries, the families accumulated land and mills, and served as local administrators.  Like others of their kind, they were active in the Glendower Rebellion against English – but were subsequently pardoned.

It was a father and son partnership that established Plas Coch in the 16^th century.

Dafydd Llwyd ap Hugh completed the first phase of construction in 1569.  He also sent his son, Hugh, to be educated at Cambridge and Lincoln’s Inn, where he became a leading barrister of his time.

Hugh was the first in the family to take the English surname, Hughes.  He made important additions to the house in the 1590’s, including the tower – and was Anglesey’s MP in 1597.  He also married into the Montagu family (the Dukes of Manchester) which brought him many contacts in the English legal and political establishment of the time.  He was Attorney-General for North Wales under Elizabeth I.  In 1609, James I appointed him Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, but he died before being able to take up the post.

In the 19^th century, Hugh’s direct descendant William Bulkeley Hughes achieved distinction as MP for Caernarfon Boroughs (later David Lloyd George’s constituency).  He served in parliament for 40 years, and made further major additions to the house, most notably the east wing and ballroom.  William Bulkeley Hughes was also a key figure in the 19^th century development of Llandudno as a successful holiday resort.  In his time, the Plas Coch estate reached its peak of 5000 acres.

William Bulkeley Hughes’ father (of the same name) was a friend of the Prince Regent, later George IV.  Family legend has it that he was almost bankrupted by an extravagant launch party he laid on for the Prince at Plas Coch in 1804.

Apart from its distinctiveness as a house, Plas Coch embodies important features in Anglesey’s continuing history.

It can be seen as a symbol of ‘the age of the gentry’ – that phase of Welsh history between the 16^th and 19^th centuries, when a socially ambitious landowning class emerged from the native population, and ruled the roost locally.

It also exemplifies the increasing fusion of English and Welsh cultural influences fro the 16^th century onwards, both in architecture and design, and as the centre of a working estate.

When it was built, Plas Coch was an example of the new flair and dynamism then being unlocked in late-Elizabethan Wales.  Now, in the early 21^st century, it is embarked on an equally adventurous and dynamic new phase.