OED plain, n.1 2b is "English regional (chiefly East Anglian). A flat or open space in a town. Chiefly in place names".
In fact all the examples given are in Norwich except for one in Oxford. Ipswich has a St Margaret's Plain.
Are there instances as names in other towns?
Where does this particular usage come from? Perhaps Dutch, since OED says "with sense 2b compare Dutch plein open space outside a building, town square (16th cent. in this sense; in Middle Dutch in more general senses; < French)?
Keith
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