Plas Machynlleth

Plas Machynlleth

The former home of the Marquess of Londonderry, Plas Machynlleth (or Y Plas as the family called it) is a Victorian mansion built from an 18th century house, itself a remodelling of an earlier 17th-century building.

History

There was a house here on the edge of Machynlleth at least as early as the 17th century. There is still a datestone of the central entrance, dated 1653. Parts of that 17th-century building were incorporated in a new house built in the 1750s by John Edwards, who called his new house Greenfields. That 18th-century building forms the east block of the current house.

In 1841 Sir John Edwards, an MP, retired from politics and spent the rest of his life restoring and rebuilding Greenfields. He gave the house a new east facade and added north and south wings.

Edwards also installed the grand entrance gates we see today, and landscaped the grounds to accord with Victorian fashion. When Sir John died the house passed to George Vane-Tempest, who later became the 5th Marquess of Londonderry.

The ornate gates of Y Plas

Sometime before 1888 the house was renamed Plas Machynlleth. The 6th Marquess was Charles Vane-Tempest, who counted among his acquaintances the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII. The Prince visited Plas Machynlleth along with other leading lights of late Victorian society.

During WWII the house was used as a girls' school, and in 1948 the 7th Marquess gave the house and its 40-acre estate to the town of Machynlleth. The estate grounds became a public park and Y Plas itself was used as local council offices.

Then in the 1990s, the council moved out and the house was converted into an interactive museum called Celtica. Budget cuts closed Celtica in 2006, and Y Plas is now used as a community centre and a meeting venue, and as a home for the Machynlleth Town Council. The Plas Machynlleth grounds are open daily, and are free to enter.

One new feature is a war memorial garden created in 2018 to honour members of the Royal Welch Fusiliers who gave their lives in both world wars.