What is this red building on Well Street? Let’s start with what we know.
As you stand outside the property and look up at the red stone front you will see a hand painted slate plaque with a potted history of Plas Coch on the outside of the property. This tells us some of the what is known locally about the building.
But how much of this is true? According to the plaque, Plas Coch is a 13th century building of historic and architectural interest. It also says that in 1400 it was around at the time of the attack on Ruthin by Owain Glyndwr and his supporters. Apparently it was later “rebuilt in 1613 as lodgings for the constable of Castell Coch”. This begs the following questions: Who was this constable? Who was the property built for…and wouldn’t it be delicious if we could find that out..?
In 1963 Plas Coch became a banqueting hall and in the late seventies it became the Conservatives Club. Locally it is still known as “The Cons”. Something that will, no doubt, change as Plas Coch evolves and becomes Lavinia Stamps.
That’s what we know from the plaque on the wall…but how much of that is truth…? Cracking question. Let’s begin the search for the real story of Plas Coch.
This plaque on the outside wall tells us that the property is a Grade II listed building. This in turn took me to a website called British Listed Buildings (https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/300000946-conservative-club-ruthin) where I learnt that Plas Coch was listed on the 24th October 1950 with Cadw.
Ahha! Another trail to follow! The Cadw listing states that Plas Coch, was built in the early years of the 17th Century using the red sandstone from the castle. This makes sense, because as you look at the main stones of those used in Plas Coch and compare them to the stones used to build Ruthin Castle …they look the same. Talking to some of the Lavinia Stamps team, they pointed me in the direction of the a part of Ruthin known as Red Rocks…WoW!….It would be easy to believe that this was where they could have sourced their building materials…
It is certainly going to be interesting piecing all the information together. I think I need to find some books on Ruthin …so my next steps will be visiting the library and talking to a local historian.
