Great Leighs Essex Family History Guide
Great Leighs is an Ancient Parish in the county of Essex.
Other places in the parish include: Chatley.
Alternative names: Lees
Parish church: St. Mary
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1558
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1630; 1800
Nonconformists include: Independent/Congregational
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
- Fairstead
- Terling
- Little Leighs
- Little Waltham
- Boreham
- White Notley
- Great Waltham
- Black Notley
- Felsted
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
LEIGHS (GREAT), a village and a parish in Chelmsford district, Essex.
The village stands on the river Ter, 6¼ miles NE by N of Chelmsford r. station; and has a post-office under Chelmsford. The parish contains also the hamlet of Chatley, and comprises 3,125 acres. Rated property, £3,353. Pop., 909. Houses, 189. The property is much subdivided.
The living is a rectory in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £878. Patron, Lincoln College, Oxford. The church is very ancient, in tolerable condition; and has a Norman door and window, and a round tower of stone and flint.
There are an Independent chapel, a national school, a British school, and charities £30.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848
LEIGHS, GREAT (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Chelmsford, partly in the hundred of Chelmsford, S. division, and partly in that of Witham, N. division, of Essex, 4½ miles (S. S. W.) from Braintree; containing, with the hamlet of Chatley, 765 inhabitants.
The parish is intersected by the road from London to Norwich, and comprises about 3000 acres of land, formerly in pasture, from which circumstance it is supposed to have derived its name; the soil is various, consisting in some parts of a hard gravel, and in others of a sandy loam of tolerable fertility.
The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s books at £25. 7. 1., and in the patronage of Lincoln College, Oxford: the tithes have been commuted for £865. The church is a very ancient edifice, with a round tower of flint and stone, surmounted by an octangular spire of wood. Various benefactions have been made for the benefit of the poor.
On the side of the road from Braintree to Chelmsford was a hermitage, now converted into an inn.
Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Administration
- County: Essex
- Civil Registration District: Chelmsford
- Probate Court: Court of the Archdeaconry of Essex
- Diocese: Pre-1846 – London, Post-1845 – Rochester
- Rural Deanery: Chelmsford
- Poor Law Union: Chelmsford
- Hundred: Chelmsford; Witham
- Province: Canterbury