Leighton is a scattered settlement and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the unitary authority of

Cheshire East Cheshire East is a unitary authority area with borough status in Cheshire, England. The local authority is Cheshire East Council, which is based in the town of Sandbach. Other towns within the area include Crewe, Macclesfield, Congleton, Wilms ...

and the ceremonial county of

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

, England, which lies immediately north west of

Crewe Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the parish had a population of 55,318 and the built-up area had a population of 74,120. ...

. The parish also includes the village of Barrows Green (at ), which lies on the northern outskirts of Crewe, 1½ miles from the centre.Genuki: Leighton
(accessed 14 August 2007) Nearby villages include Bradfield Green and Worleston. The total population of the civil parish was 4,883 at the 2011

Census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

History

A Roman road runs through the civil parish. A

Primitive Methodist The Primitive Methodist Church is a Christian denomination within the holiness movement. Originating in early 19th-century England as a revivalist movement within Methodism, it was heavily influenced by American evangelist Lorenzo Dow (1777–18 ...

chapel was built in Leighton in 1841; it closed in 1899.

Governance

Leighton is administered by Minshull Vernon and District Parish Council, jointly with

Minshull Vernon Minshull Vernon is a hamlet and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The hamlet lies to the north west of Crewe, south east of Winsford and south west ...

and

Woolstanwood Woolstanwood (also Woolstan Wood) is a village (at ) and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, which lies immediately to the west of Crewe, 1½ miles f ...

. Of 22 parish councillors, eleven represent Leighton (eight from Leighton Urban and three from Leighton Rural). From 1974 the civil parish was served by

Crewe and Nantwich Crewe and Nantwich was, from 1974 to 2009, a Non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Cheshire, England. It had a population (2001 census) of 111,007. It contained 69 ci ...

Borough Council, which was succeeded on 1 April 2009 by the

unitary authority A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...

. Leighton falls in the parliamentary constituency of

, which has been represented by

Kieran Mullan Kieran John Mullan (born 6 June 1984) is a British Conservative Party politician who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bexhill and Battle. He was previously the MP for Crewe and Nantwich between 2019 and 2024. He has been Shadow Minister f ...

since 2019, after being represented by Laura Smith (2017–19),

Edward Timpson Anthony Edward Timpson, (born 26 December 1973) is a British former Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Eddisbury in Cheshire from 2019 to 2024. Timpson was previously the MP for neighbouring Crewe ...

(2008–17) and

Gwyneth Dunwoody Gwyneth Patricia Dunwoody (née Phillips; 12 December 1930 – 17 April 2008) was a British Labour Party politician, who was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Exeter from 1966 to 1970, and then for Crewe (later Crewe and Nantwich) from February ...

(1983–2008).

Geography and transport

Much of the area is relatively flat, with an average elevation of around 50 metres. The land slopes downwards in the west to the

River Weaver The River Weaver is a river, navigable in its lower reaches, running in a curving route anti-clockwise across west Cheshire, northern England. Improvements to the river to make it navigable were authorised in 1721 and the work, which included ...

, which forms the western boundary of the civil parish, and in the south to Leighton Brook, which forms part of the southern boundary. The western part of the civil parish is predominantly rural, with the major land use being agricultural; a small area of woodland, Red Hall Wood, is located at . Urban development is concentrated around Barrows Green in the south east, adjacent to the town of

.Ordnance Survey Explorer 257: Crewe & NantwichCheshire County Council: Interactive Mapping: Leighton
(accessed 28 January 2009) A small part of the north-western corner of the parish falls within the Weaver Valley Area of Special County Value. The A530 runs north–south through the parish and the B5076 runs south-eastwards from Bradfield Green. The Crewe–

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

railway line runs east–west just to the south of the parish and the Crewe–

Winsford Winsford is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is on the River Weaver, south of Northwich and west of Middlewich. It grew around the salt mining indus ...

line runs north–south along its western boundary. The

Middlewich branch The Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal is located in Cheshire, in the north west of England, and runs between Middlewich, where it joins the Trent and Mersey Canal, and Barbridge Junction, where it joins the main line of the Shrop ...

of the

Shropshire Union Canal The Shropshire Union Canal, sometimes nicknamed the "Shroppie", is a navigable canal in England. It is the modern name for a part of the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company network. In the leisure age, two of the branches of that netwo ...

runs to the north. The

Crewe and Nantwich Circular Walk The Crewe and Nantwich Circular Walk is a long-distance walkers' path in the Cheshire East area of Cheshire, England. As the name suggests, the walk forms a circuit around the towns of Crewe and Nantwich. It is one of two circular walks in ...

runs through the eastern part of the civil parish.

Demography

According to the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 4863 in 1666 households. The historical population figures were 200 (1801), 190 (1851), 126 (1901) and 138 (1951).

Landmarks

Leighton Hospital, one of two hospitals in the Mid Cheshire Hospitals

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

Trust, is located on the A530 (at ). A large general hospital, it provides

accident and emergency An emergency department (ED), also known as an accident and emergency department (A&E), emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW) or casualty department, is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the acute care of pat ...

services covering a wide area of South Cheshire.NHS Choices: Leighton Hospital
(accessed 16 August 2007)

References

External links

{{authority control Civil parishes in Cheshire Villages in Cheshire