Leigh is a village 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 north

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

, England, southeast of

Ashton Keynes Ashton Keynes is a village and civil parish in north Wiltshire, England which borders with Gloucestershire. The village is about south of Cirencester and west of Cricklade. At the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census the population of the ...

and west of Cricklade. It is on the edge of the Cotswold Water Park and near to the county border with

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

. The parish includes the hamlet of Waterhay. The village lies on a minor road just north of the B4040

Malmesbury Malmesbury () is a town and civil parish in north Wiltshire, England, which lies approximately west of Swindon, northeast of Bristol, and north of Chippenham. The older part of the town is on a hilltop which is almost surrounded by the upp ...

–Cricklade road. The infant

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

forms part of the northern boundary of the parish; near the river is Upper Waterhay Meadow, a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest. Other boundaries are a short section of the Swill Brook which meets the Thames in the northwest; its tributary the Derry Brook in the west; and the Bournlake stream in the east.

History

Farmland at Leigh was part of Ashton Keynes manor, which was held by Cranborne Abbey (Dorset) in 1086; ownership was transferred to Tewkesbury Abbey in 1102. The manor passed to the crown on the dissolution of Tewkesbury in 1539, and in 1548 Edward VI granted the land to William Sharington as a separate manor. The estate was sold in lots by Edward Craggs-Eliot in 1803. The Archers Farm estate was acquired by the Maskelyne family, who sold it to

Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool (7 June 1770 – 4 December 1828) was a British Tories (British political party), Tory statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1812 to 1827. Before becoming Prime Minister ...

. The Jenkinson family retained an interest in Leigh until 1913. Leigh was a

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status A chapelry had a similar status to a Township (England), township, but was so named as it had a chapel of ease ...

parish until 1884 when it was made a separate parish. The parish was enlarged in 1984 when farmland south of the Malmesbury road was transferred from Cricklade parish. The population of the parish peaked in the 19th century, with 326 recorded at the 1871 census. Numbers fell to 264 by 1911, then gradually recovered to earlier levels with 362 recorded in 2011. A National School was built at Swan Lane in 1894, to accommodate 84 children. Pupils of all ages attended until 1973, when those aged 11 and over transferred to the secondary school at Purton. Leigh school closed in 2004 owing to low pupil numbers. RAF Blakehill Farm operated from 1944 to 1952 in Cricklade parish, close to Leigh.

Church

The first All Saints Church dated from the 13th century and was at Waterhay, north of the village. In 1896 parts of it were rebuilt by Charles Ponting at a site closer to the village and less prone to flooding. The chancel of the old church still stands; both it and the newer church are

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

References

External links

*
Leigh village website
Villages in Wiltshire Civil parishes in Wiltshire {{Wiltshire-geo-stub