, sketched by William Plenderleath in
The White Horses of the West of England (1892) Born at
Clifton, Bristol, Plenderleath was the only son of
Lieutenant Colonel Charles Plenderleath, of 27, Richmond Terrace, Clifton. Colonel Plenderleath was a half-pay officer of the
49th Regiment of Foot. He had been commissioned into the
89th Regiment of Foot on 29 May 1796, served in the
War of 1812, was decorated after the
Battle of Crysler's Farm of 1813, and was a
Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB). Plenderleath was educated at
Cheltenham College in Gloucestershire and entered the ministry of the
Church of England. He was
Rector of
Cherhill, Wiltshire, from December 1860 to April 1891, and then of
Mamhead in Devon from 1891 until 1905, dying on 1 April 1906. While he was at Cherhill, Plenderleath's interest in the
Cherhill White Horse led him to write a paper,
On the White Horses of Wiltshire and Its Neighbourhood (1872) for the
Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine, followed some years later by a book,
White Horses of the West of England (1885). He also kept a notebook of Cherhill's affairs which was first published in 2001, ninety-five years after the author's death, as ''Plenderleath's Memoranda of Cherhill''. He intended this as a record of "what an English country village was in the 19th century, as portrayed by one who had the best opportunities of knowing". At Mamhead, from 1891, Plenderleath also kept notes of his parish, described as "Includes census details (official and unofficial), offertory accounts, list of
communions, collections in aid of voluntary church rate, and
confirmations. In the front is a linen-backed map showing inhabited houses in Mamhead". ==Publications==