Plas Penmynydd

In an isolated rural location, set back from the N side of the B5420 NW of Penmynydd.

The rectangular N block, with projecting stack on the S side, represents the original house built in 1576. It is thought (by RCAHM) that it may have been partially destroyed and rebuilt in the mid C17; the living room fireplace, a carved stone corbel and blocked doorway in the N wall are the only C16 features in situ. The kitchen was added (S) in the late C17, with further additions and alterations made in the C19; later alterations include the staircase.

Reset into the W side of the kitchen extension is a stone bearing the date and initials: 1576 R. O. T. (Richard Owen Tudor).

Plas Penmynydd is known as the home of the Tudors. The family can be traced back to 5 brothers: Gronw (his effigy tomb is in the nearby church of St Gredifael), Ednefyed, Rhys, Gwilym, and Maredudd - father of Owain Tudor. Owain joined the army of Henry V and went on to marry his widow Katherine de Valois. They had 2 sons, Edmund and Jasper. Edmund became the Duke of Richmond and married Margaret Beaufort. His son, Henry, went over to France and returned with an army to defeat Richard III on Bosworth Field in 1485. He then became Henry VII, the first of the Tudor Kings of England.

Penmynydd was the inheritance of Gronw, the eldest of the brothers, and when he died he left the estate to his only daughter, Morvydd. Tudor Fychan inherited on his mothers death and was in turn followed by his son, Owen Tudor Fychan, esquire of body to Henry VII. His son, Richard Owen, was Sheriff of Anglesey in 1565 and 1573, and it is his son, Richard Owen Tudor, for whom the original dated Plas was built.

The estate continued to pass through the male line, many of whom were Sheriffs of Anglesey in their turn, until the last male, another Richard Owen Tudor died leaving the estate to his daughter. The estate then passed into the Bulkeley estate of Porthamel and by marriage into the Meyrick estate of Bodorgan until it was sold in 1722 to Lord Bulkeley of Baron Hill.

By the time of the Tithe Map and Schedule of the parish, 1843, the house was owned by Lord Richard Williams Bulkeley and farmed by Thomas Owen. The Tithe Schedule is well detailed, listing every field within the holding, but hard to read. The Census Returns of 1851 record that Thomas Owen was not only a famer of 270 acres (109.4 hectares), employing 10 labourers, but also High Sherrif of Anglesey; he lived at the farm with his wife, 4 children and niece.