Leigh is a village and civil parish (with a parish council shared with Bransford) in the Malvern Hills district of the county of Worcestershire, England.
| Leigh | |
|---|---|
 Leigh - house at the village centre | |
  Leigh Location within Worcestershire | |
| OS grid reference | SO783534 |
| Civil parish |
|
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | WORCESTER |
| Postcode district | WR6 |
| Police | West Mercia |
| Fire | Hereford and Worcester |
| Ambulance | West Midlands |
| UK Parliament |
|
With just a few hundred inhabitants the parish lies on the A4103, the main Worcester to Hereford road, about 5 miles out of Worcester, whilst Malvern is also about 5 miles away. The parish includes Leigh, Brockamin, Leigh Sinton, Sandlin & Smith End Green. The local pronunciation is that the name rhymes with "lie".
Due largely to the significant reduction of the hop industry in the area, [citation needed]Leigh, like many local villages, declined in the late 20th century; it lost its pub, its police station and its railway station (with the closure of the Bromyard branch line in the 1960s).
History
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Leigh's Norman church (St. Edburga's) was built in 1100 by Benedictine monks from Pershore Abbey.[citation needed] It is listed by English heritage as a Grade I listed building.
Leigh Court Barn is the largest and one of the oldest cruck framed barns in Britain.
A mile to the south at Castle Green are the earthwork and buried remains of a medieval motte and bailey castle.
Enclosures of common lands caused riots at Leigh in 1778, where anti-enclosure rioters attacked the physical enclosure:
with their faces blackened and being otherwise disguised, and armed with guns and other offensive weapons; … in the most daring manner did cut down, burn, and entirely destroy all the posts, gates and rails.[1]
Following the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 Leigh Parish ceased to be responsible for maintaining the poor in its parish. This responsibility was transferred to Martley Poor Law Union.[2]
The area is reputedly haunted by the ghost of a robber named Edmund Colles, who is said to appear in a coach drawn by four fire-breathing horses.[3]
References
edit- ^ MacDonald, Alec (1969) [1943], Worcestershire in English History (Reprint ed.), London: SR Publishers, p. 136, ISBN 978-0854095759
- ^ Worcestershire Family History Guidebook, Vanessa Morgan, 2011, p68 The History Press, Stroud, Gloucestershire.
- ^ Ash, Russell (1973). Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain. Reader's Digest Association Limited. p. 321. ISBN 9780340165973.
External links
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