PLEASELEY, a parish in the hundred of SCARSDALE,
county of DERBY, 3 miles (N. W. by N.) from
Mansfield, containing 529 inhabitants. The living is
a rectory, in the archdeaconry of Derby, and diocese
of Lichfield and Coventry, rated in the king's books at
£11. 4. 7., and in the patronage of Bache Thornhill,
Esq. The church, dedicated to St. Michael, is an ancient
stone edifice, remarkably long and narrow; there
is a large chasm in the steeple, caused by the shock of
an earthquake, which was felt over a great part of the
midland counties, on March 17th, 1816. Limestone
abounds in the parish, and there are some considerable
manufactories for cotton thread, hosiery, One., principally
for the Nottingham market. Pleaseley had anciently
a market on Monday, granted, in 1284, to
Thomas Bee, Bishop of St. David's, with a fair for three
days; the former has been long disused, but fairs are
now held on May 6th and October 29th, for cattle, horses,
and sheep. Seven children are instructed for £ 9 a year,
the bequest of William Pearse, in 1818, by a schoolmistress,
who also superintends a Sunday school, according
to the will of the donor. In the park adjoining
the cotton-mills is a large enclosure, with a double
vallum and intrenchments, two sides of which are
secured by natural precipices; it is two hundred and
fifty feet in length, by one hundred and ninety-five in
breadth, and is evidently a Saxon work, though not
hitherto noticed by antiquaries.