High Legh is a village,

civil Civil may refer to: *Civic virtue, or civility *Civil action, or lawsuit * Civil affairs *Civil and political rights *Civil disobedience *Civil engineering *Civil (journalism), a platform for independent journalism *Civilian, someone not a membe ...

and

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish priest ...

in the unitary authority of

Cheshire East Cheshire East is a unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The local authority is Cheshire East Council. Towns within the area include Crewe, Macclesfield, Co ...

and the ceremonial county of

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, England. It is north west of

Knutsford Knutsford () is a market town in the borough of Cheshire East, in Cheshire, England. Knutsford is south-west of Manchester, north-west of Macclesfield and 12.5 miles (20 km) south-east of Warrington. The population at the 2011 Census wa ...

, east of

Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...

and south west of

Manchester City Centre Manchester City Centre is the central business district of Manchester in Greater Manchester, England situated within the confines of Great Ancoats Street, A6042 Trinity Way, and A57(M) Mancunian Way which collectively form an inner ring road. ...

. The population of the entire civil parish was estimated at 1,705 in 2019.https://www.ons.gov.uk/redir/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpbmRleCI6MSwicGFnZVNpemUiOjEwLCJ0ZXJtIjoicGFyaXNoIHBvcHVsYXRpb24iLCJwYWdlIjoxLCJ1cmkiOiIvcGVvcGxlcG9wdWxhdGlvbmFuZGNvbW11bml0eS9wb3B1bGF0aW9uYW5kbWlncmF0aW9uL3BvcHVsYXRpb25lc3RpbWF0ZXMvdGltZXNlcmllcy9lbnBvcC9wb3AiLCJsaXN0VHlwZSI6InNlYXJjaCJ9.bB8GfJaUdEQj6pnPHZzQTv4hgxCLQLx1ivDALsAExl8 UK 2019 Population Estimate, Accessed 14 February 2021.

History

Unusually this village was the

seat A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but also headquarters in a wider sense. Types of seat The following are examples of different kinds of seat: * Armchair (furniture), ...

of two ancient landed gentry families for generations, namely: Leigh of West Hall and Cornwall-Legh of East Hall. Both

hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gr ...

s have now been demolished, but both families are still represented today, the head of the "West Hall" family being Sir Edward Leigh MP but no longer associated or living within the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

and that of the "East Hall" family being headed by Richard, 6th Baron Grey of Codnor. A member of a

cadet branch In history and heraldry, a cadet branch consists of the male-line descendants of a monarch's or patriarch's younger sons ( cadets). In the ruling dynasties and noble families of much of Europe and Asia, the family's major assets— realm, title ...

of the Leigh of West Hall family was created a

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

in 1773 as Sir Egerton Leigh, but this

title A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...

is now dormant. Other cadet branches were the Leigh-Traffords of nearby

Oughtrington Hall Oughtrington Hall was a country house located in Oughtrington Lane to the east of the village of Lymm in Cheshire, England. The manor house was rebuilt in about 1810 for Trafford Trafford (''né'' Leigh: a descendant of the ancient Leighs of W ...

as well as the Barons Leigh of

Stoneleigh Abbey Stoneleigh Abbey is an English country house and estate situated south of Coventry. Nearby is the village of Stoneleigh, Warwickshire. The Abbey itself is a Grade I listed building. History In 1154 Henry II granted land in the Forest of Arden t ...

in Warwickshire and the Barons Newton of

Lyme Park Lyme Park is a large estate south of Disley, Cheshire, England, managed by the National Trust and consisting of a mansion house surrounded by formal gardens and a deer park in the Peak District National Park. The house is the largest in Chesh ...

. The third

lordship of the manor Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...

was held by the

Egerton family The Egerton family (pronunciation: "''edge-er-ton''") is a British aristocratic family. Over time, several members of the Egerton family were made Dukes, Earls, knights, baronets and peers. Hereditary titles held by the Egerton family include t ...

of Tatton and all three landed families swapped and consolidated their estates throughout the 18th and 19th centuries until the

Egerton Leigh Egerton Leigh (7 March 1815 – 1 July 1876) was a British landowner, soldier, Conservative politician and author. Personal life Leigh was the only son of Egerton Leigh and Wilhelmina Sarah, daughter of George Stratton, and succeeded his fat ...

s sold their High Legh estate to the Cornwall-Leghs just before World War I. When Maurice, 4th and last Lord Egerton of Tatton, sold off the remaining farms and land in High Legh in the 1930s, so ended a connection dating back to the 13th century. East Hall was demolished in the early 1970s (as West Hall had been some 20 years previously) and the debris was used as foundations for the first

Thelwall Thelwall is a suburban village in the Borough of Warrington, Cheshire, England, close to the Lymm junction of the M6 motorway. History A fortified village was established at Thelwall in 923, in the reign of King Edward the Elder, which is me ...

viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide v ...

bridge of the M6. High Legh Hall (the East Hall) resembled nearby

Tatton Park Tatton Park is an historic estate in Cheshire, England, north of the town of Knutsford. It contains a mansion, Tatton Hall, a medieval manor house, Tatton Old Hall, Tatton Park Gardens, a farm and a deer park of . It is a popular visitor attr ...

and the West Hall (

family) was a beautiful Tudor building similar architecturally to

Little Moreton Hall Little Moreton Hall, also known as Old Moreton Hall, is a moated half-timbered manor house southwest of Congleton in Cheshire, England. The earliest parts of the house were built for the prosperous Cheshire landowner William Moreton in about ...

. In a mainly agricultural area, its proximity to

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

and the area now known as ''Gold Trafford'' has made it nowadays a desirable residential area. High Legh was recorded in the

Domesday Survey Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

as having two Saxons theins (Ulviet or Wulfgeat, and Dob). The boundary between

Mere Mere may refer to: Places * Mere, Belgium, a village in East Flanders * Mere, Cheshire, England * Mere, Wiltshire, England People * Mere Broughton (1938–2016), New Zealand Māori language activist and unionist * Mere Smith, American televisi ...

and High Legh is still known as Dobb Lane and is, in fact, the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

boundary Boundary or Boundaries may refer to: * Border, in political geography Entertainment *Boundaries (2016 film), ''Boundaries'' (2016 film), a 2016 Canadian film *Boundaries (2018 film), ''Boundaries'' (2018 film), a 2018 American-Canadian road trip ...

between the two parishes. A moated site has been found, alongside the Roman road which connected

Wilderspool Wilderspool is a district of Warrington, Cheshire, near the town centre. It consists of Wilderspool Causeway and the streets coming off it, the limits being the River Mersey into Stockton Heath (where it turns into London Road), Bridgefoot (near ...

and

Latchford, Cheshire Latchford is a suburb and electoral ward of Warrington, Cheshire, England. It is around one mile south-east of Warrington town centre and has a total resident population of 7,856. Latchford is a predominantly residential area, Latchford lies ...

to Watling Street (A556) which contained Samian pottery from

Cirencester Cirencester (, ; see below for more variations) is a market town in Gloucestershire, England, west of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswolds. It is the home of ...

, a Roman cloak clasp, and a flint knife. High Legh was also a high-status

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

burial site. High Legh is the location of an early

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

chapel in Northwood Lane, with

Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan– Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charles W ...

connections. Northwood Methodist Chapel was founded by the Okell family of High Legh (who married into the Egerton Leigh (''West Hall'') family). In the early 19th century, Robert Moffat, a young Scottish man, came to work on the West Hall estate as a gardener, but in 1814 he joined the

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational miss ...

and moved to Plantation Farm in

Dukinfield Dukinfield is a town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, on the south bank of the River Tame opposite Ashton-under-Lyne, east of Manchester. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 19,306. Within the boundaries of the historic co ...

. In 1816 he left with his wife for southern Africa where he became a

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

; his daughter met and fell in love with their student preacher,

David Livingstone David Livingstone (; 19 March 1813 – 1 May 1873) was a Scottish physician, Congregationalist, and pioneer Christian missionary with the London Missionary Society, an explorer in Africa, and one of the most popular British heroes of t ...

. The oldest building in the parish is believed to be St Mary's Chapel, formerly the domestic chapel of the Cornwall-Legh family of High Legh Hall (or East Hall), which is sometimes open to the public. However, other older buildings in the parish contain

wattle and daub Wattle and daub is a composite building method used for making walls and buildings, in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called wattle is daubed with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung a ...

but no evidence of their dates has yet been established. The

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

Church of St John was formerly the domestic chapel of the ''Leighs of West Hall'' (Egerton Leigh family). The park of East Hall, High Legh was laid out by

Humphrey Repton Humphry Repton (21 April 1752 – 24 March 1818) was the last great English landscape designer of the eighteenth century, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown; he also sowed the seeds of the more intricate and eclectic styles of ...

for George John Legh in 1791, and John Nash was also engaged to create an idyll village, but this was never completed. Repton removed the old

toll road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or ''toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented ...

(the original Roman road) and dropped it to its present position (the A50), removing the village and creating a more enclosed entrance to the estate and pleasure gardens. Both mansions were used by the government for the training of

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

after the families moved out; they never returned to their respective

s and subsequently sold the internal section of the estate to two building companies,

Wimpey Homes George Wimpey was a British construction firm. Formed in 1880 and based in Hammersmith, it initially operated largely as a road surfacing contractor. The business was acquired by Godfrey Mitchell in 1919, and he developed it into a constructio ...

, and Crossley Homes. In the 1980s more of the estate pleasure gardens was sold off for housing to Ideal Homes. In the 1990s another estate was built on the former

Army camp A military camp or bivouac is a semi-permanent military base, for the lodging of an army. Camps are erected when a military force travels away from a major installation or fort during training or operations, and often have the form of large cam ...

buildings, now known as The Belfry. All the street names in these developments have a connection with the history of High Legh through either one of the ancient landed families (Legh & Leigh), prominent people within the

or parts of the former park (Pheasant Walk).

Coats of arms

File:Blason Fr famille Labetz (Mixe).svg, ''Leigh of West Hall'' File:Blason de la ville de Mittelwihr (68).svg, ''Legh of East Hall''

Transport

On 10 October 2009, High Legh Railway (a gauge railway) was opened by Louise Robbins (

Headteacher A head master, head instructor, bureaucrat, headmistress, head, chancellor, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the teacher, staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school ...

of High Legh Primary School). On 26 November 2011, the railway was extended further making the route a little short of . The extension was opened by Harold Brooks (in the guise of

Father Christmas Father Christmas is the traditional English name for the personification of Christmas. Although now known as a Christmas gift-bringer, and typically considered to be synonymous with Santa Claus, he was originally part of a much older and unrel ...

) and Frank Sidebottom from the 7 Inch Gauge Society; High Legh Railway is operated by Vee Limited. The railway is the brainchild of Andrew John Higgins

Education

There have been three schools in High Legh. The one within the triangle on the side of the A50 is now High Legh Village Hall, managed by High Legh Community Association. The latest school (with new extensions 1993–94) was built on Wrenshot Lane in 1976; this land was donated by Charles Cornwall-Legh (''later'' Lord Grey of Codnor) to

Cheshire County Council Cheshire County Council was the county council of Cheshire. Founded on 1 April 1889, it was officially dissolved on 31 March 2009, when it and its districts were superseded by two unitary authorities; Cheshire West and Chester and Cheshire Eas ...

Sport

The village now has several sporting facilities including High Legh Cricket Club which plays at

Arley Hall Arley Hall is a country house in the village of Arley, Cheshire, England, about south of Lymm and north of Northwich. It is home to the owner, Viscount Ashbrook, and his family. The house is a Grade II* listed building, as is its adjace ...

the home of the

Viscount Ashbrook Viscount Ashbrook is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1751 for Captain Henry Flower, 2nd Baron Castle Durrow. The title of Baron Castle Durrow, in the County of Kilkenny, had been created in the Peerage of Ireland in 1733 for ...

, golf at High Legh Park Country Club on land formerly part of the West Hall estate, High Legh Bowling Club, opposite the Village Hall and High Legh Tennis Club. In 2008 an annual early season 10K running race was started, called the High Legh Robert Moffat Memorial 10K race. It has developed into a very popular local race. The race is jointly organised by High Legh Community Association and Lymm Runners Running ClubLymm Runners Official Site
/ref>

References

External links

High Legh Community website
{{authority control Villages in Cheshire Civil parishes in Cheshire