Plaish Hall

Plaish Hall is a country house built circa 1540 and around 1580 for Sir William Leighton, incorporating parts of a 15th-century house, with alterations and additions dating from the 17th century, around 1889, and the early 20th century.

The building is constructed of red brick laid in English bond with vitrified blue diapering and grey sandstone dressings; the sides and rear are of coursed grey sandstone rubble. The roof is of stone slate with gablets at the ends of the hall range. The house is planned in an H-shape with gabled wings, standing two storeys and attic over a basement. It features a chamfered plinth, stone quoins, and parapeted gables with stone copings and kneelers.

The house retains pairs of large 16th and 17th-century external lateral stone and brick stacks with pitched-roofed links to the attic, and groups of star-shaped and square brick shafts with oversailing caps. The stack to the rear at left is a 17th-century replacement, while that to the front at left has lost two spiral-moulded circular brick shafts since 1917. The external lateral stack at the rear of the hall range has three circular brick shafts with moulded diapering and moulded bases and caps; a 19th-century brick stack is also present at the rear. There is a pair of central flat-topped late 19th-century wooden dormers with three-light wooden casements.

The south-east front displays a 1:3:1 fenestration pattern with 16th and 17th-century stone double-chamfered three- and four-light mullioned and transomed windows, some with 19th-century restorations and insertions. The 16th-century windows have pointed-arched lights and hollow chamfers. A ground-floor window off-centre to the right possibly replaces a former oriel or bay, as suggested by straight joints in the brickwork. A first-floor half-glazed 19th-century door off-centre to the left has a small 19th-century balcony with scrolled stone brackets and wrought-iron balustrade. A 19th-century nail-studded ground-floor door off-centre to the left is set within a 19th-century moulded and chamfered four-centred stone archway.

The left-hand return front features a gabled former garderobe turret off-centre to the right, a 19th-century porch off-centre to the left with a lean-to roof, a 19th-century nail-studded boarded door to the right, and a 15th-century three-light window to the left with pointed cusped lights under a straight head. The right-hand return front also has a gabled former garderobe turret off-centre to the right with a half-octagonal stair turret between it and the right-hand stack. An early 20th-century rendered flat-roofed staircase block occupies the angle at the rear.

Interior

The entrance hall probably contains early 20th-century linenfold panelling. The main hall has a 19th-century moulded Tudor-arched fireplace with carved spandrels and heavy overmantel, early 20th-century linenfold panelling, and a moulded stone four-centred archway at its upper end with an old boarded door with strap hinges.

The drawing room retains a 16th-century ceiling divided into lozenge panels by thin ribs with small pendants, each painted with the initials "H.R.", small shields and scrollwork. It also has 16th-century panelling painted to imitate relief with small floral motifs, and a 16th-century Tudor-arched stone fireplace with a large overmantel consisting of three carved round-arched and circular panels, with square-in-square panels set low down to each side.

The dining room has a delicate 16th-century plaster ceiling of the Wilderhope School type, with thin ribs, "JESU" in a central foiled panel, Tudor Rose motifs, and a frieze with grotesques and roses. The fireplace probably dates from the late 16th century and features Ionic half columns and a frieze and cornice with acanthus brackets.

The staircase is of early 20th-century date but incorporates reused timbers from the former 16th-century hall roof and gallery, including balusters from the gallery and hammer struts reused as newel posts. It features a closed string, pierced splat balusters, square newel posts with cable-moulded corners and large finials, and moulded ceiling beams with run-out stops. First-floor timber-framed cross walls are present.

Bedrooms on the right-hand side include one with a chamfered Tudor-arched brick fireplace with broach stops. The back bedroom has a chamfered Tudor-arched fireplace, remains of stencilled fleur-de-lys wall decoration, and a newel stair in the turret, formerly continuing to the attic. Left-hand bedrooms include one with a chamfered Tudor-arched fireplace with brick reveals and stone lintel, and a centre room with a late 17th-century stone fireplace with deep lintel and moulded cornice. The front bedroom has a delicate 16th-century plaster ceiling with thin ribs dividing it into four panels with Tudor Rose motifs at the corners.

Shortly after 1917, the pair of octagonal stair turrets formerly in the angles at the rear were demolished and replaced by a new staircase block. At the same time, a first floor was inserted into the central hall, and many of the old timbers from the former hammerbeam roof and west gallery were reused in the new staircase.

A monument to Sir William Leighton exists in St. Mary's Church, Cardington. The brickwork at Plaish represents some of the earliest in the county.