Place:Leek, Staffordshire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Leek is a market town in the county of Staffordshire, England, on the River Churnet. It is situated about 10 miles (15 km) NE of Stoke-on-Trent. It is an ancient borough and was granted its royal charter in 1214. King John granted Ranulph de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester, the right to hold a weekly Wednesday market and an annual seven-day fair in Leek in 1207.

Leek has been the administrative centre for the Staffordshire Moorlands District Council since 1974. Prior to that it was an urban district.

The town had a regular cattle market for hundreds of years, reflecting its role as a centre of local farming. Following the industrial revolution it was a major producer of textiles, with silk working in particular coming to dominate the industrial landscape. However, this industry has now ceased.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Leek, Staffordshire.

In the early 19th century and before, Leek was an ancient (ecclesiastical) parish with numerous townships which became civil parishes in their own right in 1866. Leek's townships were:

• Bradnop and Cawdry
• Endon Longsdon and Stanley (split into two civil parishes of Endon and Stanley and Longsdon)
• Heaton
• Horton
• Ipstones
• Leekfrith
• Lowe
• Onecote
• Rudyard
• Rushton (a chapelry rather than a township and containing the townships of Rushton James and Rushton Spencer; became a civil parish in 1934)
• Rushton James
• Rushton Spencer
• Tittesworth

Townships usually had their own (Church of England) church, but this depended on their size (both population and acreage) and the ability of local benefactors to pay for upkeep of the edifice.

The map was originally drawn to illustrate the organization of Leek Rural District, but it also helps to indicated which townships made up the ancient parish of Leek.

Research Tips

• Introduction to the ancient parish of Leek and description of the town of Leek from The Victoria County History of Staffordshire as provided by the website British History Online. This is a very long article (almost 100 pages if it were in book-form) and is preceded by a hyperlinked index of topics.