Plas Esgair is a Grade II listed Georgian mansion in an idyllic location with outstanding views. Home, renovation project and grand country house B & B.
'Plas Esgair' literally translates to 'Long Ridge Hall' in English (PLAS, a hall or mansion; ESGAIR, a long ridge)
Cadw records show Plas Esgair was first built in 1780 and then enlarged between 1820 and 1830 and the verandah added but the date 1755 is carved into the stonework so it was probably first built slightly earlier.
The house sits in its own grounds of approximately 6 acres approached by a long driveway from the road, approximately 1/2 a mile north of Llan church.
It is Grade II listed because it is "a well preserved gentry house in an area where such social distinctions are rare".
We bought Plas Esgair on 27th October 2017 from David William Harper and Christine Vera Harper.
David and Christine lived and loved Plas Esgair for forty one years bringing up four children and keeping an eclectic menagerie of animals ranging, from cats, dogs and sheep to the more exotic Indian Peacocks and Rheas.
David and Christine bought Plas Esgair and six acres of the surrounding land from Matthews Wrightson Land Limited on 24th February 1976. Matthews Wrightson were better known locally as their wholly-owned subsidiary Fountain Forestry Ltd.
Matthews Wrightson Land Ltd’s whose worldwide interests covered insurance broking, underwriting and shipping became interested in forestry in 1955 when they were asked by some woodland owners to provide satisfactory fire insurance for their plantations. As a result two of three members of the Matthews Wrightson Group started to investigate the prospects for investment in forestry. This led to the company having an interest in rural land use and becoming an early pioneer of private sustainable forestry.
This explains why Matthews Wrightson Land Limited bought the entire Plas Esgair estate; house, park land, farm land and forest from Hugh Elwyn Jones on the 21st January 1974.
We are still researching the prior history of Plas Esgair but Christine kindly passed on a letter she received on 6th March 1982 from a Doris Hill of The Flying Chariot, 92 Benton Street, Hadleigh, Suffolk.
She writes:-
“Dear Mrs Harper,
It was so kind of you to write & I was thrilled to get your letter & find you did not regard my enquiry as an intrusion. In case you are interested I enclose an account of the family who lived in your house.
I do hope to come to Wales this year & if I may, I will by arrangement come to see you - & the house. As you will see in my notes there is a story that the Hills had owned the house before the General lived there, but my father-in-law, the youngest of the General’s 13 children, told me he had built it & I have two Bellarmine jars that were found in the foundations of the house - Tudor date.
I shall be very interested if you ever find out anything more about the house & I will get in touch with the local Record Office to see if they can me any detail.
Once again, thank you so very much for writing& I shall much look forward to coming over to see the house when I am in Wales. We shall be staying in a hotel so it would be easy to come over for an hour or so & not give you any trouble - but I much appreciate you kind invitation.
Yours sincerely,
Doris Hill”
