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PLAISH HALL. 

 [By the Rev. William Elliot, President]. 



It may not unreasonably be conjectured that the name " Plaish " is an altered 

 form of the British word " plas," signifying " palace " or " place," many instances 

 of which occur in tlie neighbouring Principality. In Domesday Book the manor 

 is called that of Pleshe, the trace of which pronunciation is to be seen in the 

 spelling of the name to-day. At the date of the Domesday Survey it was held by 

 Roger de Lacy. Godwin was the Saxon Lord, Earl Roger the Domesday 

 Suzerain, De Lacy the Domesday tenant, under whom one Berner occupied the 

 suli-tenancy. From the occurrence of the same names in the description of the 

 manor of Higford, in the parish of Stockton, some twenty miles from this spot, it 

 would appear likely that this latter manor was held concurrently with the manor 

 of Pleshe. In 1175 the seigneury passed from De Lacy to Fitz-AIan, the 

 descendants of Berner, the original sub-tenant, still retaining their tenancy, and 

 having by this time assumed the surname of Higford. By one of these, as we 

 learn from the roll of the hundred of Munslow of the year 1255, the manor was 

 sub-infeoffed to a family of the name of Sprengcheaux, variously known in 

 subsequent years bj the Anglicised appellations of Sprenchose, Sprenghose, and 

 Sprenthose. Sprengcheaux, or Sprenghose, of Plaish, was, doubtless, a member 

 of the family of Sprengcheaux of Longnor, who seem to have been important 

 l)eopIe at that day. They were Lords of the Manor of Longnor at the end of the 

 12th century, held those of Baystnn and Condover in the reign of Henry III., and 

 two of them, Roger and Edward, were respectively sherifiFs of Shropshire in 1279 

 and 1411. Plaish remained in posses.'iion of the Sprengcheaux down to the reign 

 of Henry VII., and the hall was occupied as their residence until the death of 

 the last male of the line, Fulk Sprenghose, in 1447. He left behind him four 

 co-heiresses, the youngest of whom, Margery, married William Leighton, son of 

 John Leighton, of Wattlesborough— a branch of the family whose present 

 representative Ls Sir Baldwyn Leighton, of Loton Park. The son of this William 

 Leighton and Margery Sprenghose was one William Leighton, who was one of the 

 Council of the Marches of Wales and Chief Justice of North Wales, "which 

 places he occupied," as the inscription on his monument in Cardington Church 

 informs us, "by the space of above 40 years with great sinceritie and without 

 complaint." To this Chief Justice Leighton is ascribed by tradition the building 

 of the existing dwelliug-house. Portions of the original stone mansion at the back 

 of it appear to have been incorporated into the brick building erected by him. 

 You will notice the highly ornamental chimneys of moulded brick, unusual in thia 

 part of England, though I am told they are more common in the home counties. 

 The story goes that the builder of them was arraigned before the Chief Justice for 

 one of the many crimes which then entailed capital punishment, and was 

 sentenced to death, but as he was known to be a skilful artificer in the chimney 



