Plaish Hall is a

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

in Plaish, in the civil parish of Cardington, in the Shropshire district, in the ceremonial county of Shropshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. Plaish Hall was the house of the Jacobean poet,

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and politician Sir William Leighton, who was most probably born there in c.1565.

History

The estate that surrounds Plaish Hall was first mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as '''pleshā''''', -'' which is thought to derive from an Old English term for "shallow pool", '''plæsċ ''.'' Plaish was owned by a wealthy landowner named Roger de Lacy. A manor house was built in the 15th century, on the site where Plaish Hall now stands. William Leighton, the Chief Justice of North Wales, rebuilt the 15th-century manor house between 1540 and 1580. It is not understood how Leighton came into the ownership of the manor house at Plaish; it was either purchased or inherited. Leighton did not demolish the entirety of the existing manor house when rebuilding it, and incorporated sections of it into Plaish Hall. The house which Leighton built was considerably larger and more impressive, consider to be amongst the earliest brick houses in Shropshire. During this time in which the house was built, Leighton's son - the

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

and politician Sir William Leighton - was born in c.1565, most probably at Plaish Hall. Sir William Leighton was knighted in 1603 by King James I, and wrote a eulogy for him entitled Virtues Triumphant'''. However, the year after his father's death in 1607, Sir William Leighton was sued for debts by Sir William Harmon and in 1610 was outlawed and imprisoned for debt. Sir William Leighton died in London and was buried at

St Bride's, Fleet Street St Bride's Church is a church in the City of London, England. The building's most recent incarnation was designed by Sir Christopher Wren in 1672 in Fleet Street in the City of London, though Wren's original building was largely gutted by fire ...

on 31 July 1622. The house was Grade I listed on 29 January 1952. The garden wall was

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

as "Garden Walls Adjoining Plaish Hall To South East" on 7 April 1986.

Architecture

Tudor chimneys on Hampton Court Palace, Middlesex

The present house incorporates part of an earlier 15th-century house, and was later extended and altered. It is in red brick with blue diapering on a

chamfer A chamfer or is a transitional edge between two faces of an object. Sometimes defined as a form of bevel, it is often created at a 45° angle between two adjoining right-angled faces. Chamfers are frequently used in machining, carpentry, fu ...

ed plinth, and has sandstone dressings, quoins, and a stone-slate roof with parapeted gables and stone

copings Coping refers to conscious strategies used to reduce unpleasant emotions. Coping strategies can be cognitions or behaviours and can be individual or social. Theories of coping Hundreds of coping strategies have been proposed in an attempt to ...

. The house has an H-shaped plan, with a central hall, and gabled cross-ranges, two storeys, attics and a basement. Above the doorway is a balcony with scrolled brackets and a wrought iron

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

. The windows vary, and include casements, some mullioned and transomed windows, and flat-roofed

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...

s. The chimneys were said to be inspired by those at Hampton Court, which was being constructed within the same period. Nikolaus Pevsner remarked that Plaish Hall was "the most important of its date in Shropshire".

Tradition

The

folklorist Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...

and author

Charlotte Sophia Burne Charlotte Sophia Burne (Shropshire, 1850–1923) was an English author and editor, and the first woman to become president of the Folklore Society. Life Charlotte Sophia Burne was born on 2 May 1850 at Moreton vicarage in Staffordshire, near to t ...

recorded a story involving Plaish Hall in her 1883 work, 'Shropshire Folk-Lore'. It is said that William Leighton - who built Plaish Hall between 1540 and 1580 - once sentenced a builder to death as the Chief Justice of North Wales. However, he then employed the man to construct the chimneys at Plaish Hall and would let the builder live, on the condition that they were "as no man ever saw before, or could build the like of after". Apparently displeased with the finished work, Leighton is said to have had the man hanged from one of the chimneys at Plaish Hall. Leighton had a reputation for hanging many men, but the actual vadility of the story is debated. The Dowager Lady Mander later recounted being told the same tale in the 1940s. The claim that Plaish Hall was the first brick-built house in Shropshire is well-known but uncertain. Pevsner did remark, however, that Plaish Hall's brickwork would have certainly appeared impressive when first built; red-brick was "at that moment, the fashionable material".

References

External links

* {{cite web, url=https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=111386&resourceID=19191, title=Plaish Hall, publisher=Heritage Gateway, accessdate=10 March 2023 Country houses in Shropshire Grade I listed buildings in Shropshire Grade I listed houses Cardington, Shropshire