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Name | Leigh upon Mendip |
Alt names | Leigh-upon-Mendip | source: hyphenated | | Leigh | source: shortened form | | Leigh on Mendip | source: alternate spelling | | Leigh-on-Mendip | source: hyphenated |
Type | Chapelry, Civil parish |
Coordinates | 51.223°N 2.448°W |
Located in | Somerset, England |
See also | Mells, Somerset, England | ancient parish in which it was a chapelry | | Frome Hundred, Somerset, England | hundred in which it was located | | Mells and Leigh Hundred, Somerset, England | second hundred in which it was located | | Frome Rural, Somerset, England | rural district 1894-1974 | | Mendip District, Somerset, England | district municipality covering the area since 1974 |
- the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia.
Leigh upon Mendip or Leigh on Mendip (#14 on map) is a small village on the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England. It lies roughly equidistant from Frome, Radstock and Shepton Mallet at about 8 km from each town. According to the UK census of 2011, the parish had a population of 514.
The parish was part of Frome Hundred and also of the Mells and Leigh Hundred. Leigh upon Mendip was not an ancient parish, but a chapelry within the parish of Mells. From 1894 until 1974 it was a parish in Frome Rural District. Since 1974 the local governing body is the non-metropolitan Mendip District of Somerset.
Historic Descriptions
1822 - Somersetshire delineated by Christopher & John Greenwood
A parish in the liberty of Mells and Leigh,and locally in the hundred of Kilmersdon, 5½ miles W. from Frome; containing 149 inhabited houses, and as many families, 148 of whom are employed in agriculture. The church is a Gothic structure, dedicated to St. Giles, and consists of a nave, chancel, two side aisles and porch, with an embattled tower containing six bells, and is a chapel to the adjoining parish of Mells. Population, 1801: 534; 1811: 562; 1821: 666.
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1875 - Somersetshire edited by Edward Robert Kelly
Leigh-upon-Mendip is a parish and village, 120 miles from London, 3 north-east from Cranmore railway station, and 6 north-east from Shepton Mallet, in the Eastern division of the county, hundred of Mells and Leigh, union, county court district and rural deanery of Frome, Wells archdeaconry, and diocese of Bath and Wells. The parish is considered very healthy; it is well supplied with excellent water, and is 8S4 feet above the level of the sea. The church of St. Giles is an ancient stone building, in the Perpendicular style; has a chancel, nave, aisles, elaborately decorated tower with pinnacles, containing 6 bells, and clock, porch and organ. The register dates from the year 1566. The living is a chapelry, yearly value £200, annexed to the vicarage of Vobster, in the gilt of the rector of Mells, and held by the Rev. George Augustus Mahon, M.A., of Hertford College, Oxford. There is a school for boys and girls. The Wesleyans and Primitive Methodists have chapels here. J. F. Fortescue Horner, esq., of Mells, is lord of the manor, and owns nearly the whole of the parish. The soil is generally light, resting on the limestone, and, in portions of the parish, on the clay subsoil. The land is chiefly in pasture, producing a sweet herbage for dairy purposes. The acreage is £1,425; rateable value, £3,009; the population in 1871 was 512.
1929 - Somerset by George Woosung Wade & Joseph Henry Wade
Leigh on Mendip (pronounced Lye), a bleakly situated village on the E. Mendips, 6 m. W.S.W. from Frome. It possesses a small Perp. church with a mean chancel, but set off by the compensating attraction of a remarkably noble W. tower, which well merits attention. It is of the reduplicated triple window type (cp. Mells) with a finely pierced parapet and profusely ornamented with pinnacles, but out of all proportion to the church. The latter contains (1) a pillar stoup in the porch; (2) a Norm, font; (3) some old oak benches; (4) fine granite altar slab, found buried for safety's sake; (5) two small corbels in the chancel, presumably for supporting a Lenten veil (cp. Orchardleigh); (6) piscinas in chancel and S. aisle.
Research Tips
- The Somerset Heritage Centre (incorporating what was formerly the Somerset Record Office and the Somerset Local Studies Library) can be found at its new location at Langford Mead in Taunton. It has an online search facility leading to pages of interest, including maps from the First and Second Ordnance Survey (select "Maps and Postcards" from the list at the left, then enter the parish in the search box).
The Heritage Centre has an email address: archives@somerset.gov.uk.
- Three maps on the A Vision of Britain through Time website illustrate the changes in political boundaries over the period 1830-1945. All have expanding scales and on the second and third this facility is sufficient that individual parishes can be inspected.
- Somerset Hundreds as drawn in 1832. This map was prepared before The Great Reform Act of that year. Note the polling places and representation of the various parts of the county.
- Somerset in 1900, an Ordnance Survey map showing rural districts, the boundaries of the larger towns, the smaller civil parishes of the time, and some hamlets and villages in each parish
- Somerset in 1943, an Ordnance Survey map showing the rural districts after the changes to their structure in the 1930s
- Maps provided by the National Library of Scotland are also very useful. This map is currently set to an area now in the Sedgmoor District as it existed in the late 19th century, but can be moved to anywhere in the county using a variety of background maps. There is a very good search facility.
- A Vision of Britain through Time has a group of pages of statistical facts for almost every parish in the county
- GENUKI gives pointers to other archive sources as well as providing some details on each parish. The emphasis here is on ecclesiastical parishes (useful before 1837)
- A listing of all the Registration Districts in England and Wales since their introduction in 1837 and tables of the parishes that were part of each district and the time period covered with detailed notes on changes of parish name, mergers, etc. The compiler has gone to a lot of work to provide this material. Respect his copyright.
- The FamilySearch Wiki for Somerset provides a similar but not identical series of webpages to that provided by GENUKI
- English Jurisdictions, a supplementary website to FamilySearch outlining local parish boundaries in the middle on the 19th century. The information provided is especially useful for establishing the relationship of the ecclesiastical parishes in large towns and cathedral cities.
- The Victoria History of the Counties of England – History of the County of Somerset, produced by The Institute of Historical Research at the University of London is a scholarly website with articles tracing the history of individual parishes which are sorted into their hundreds, the early subdivisions of the county. It traces the ownership of estates and manors, describes the local church in detail, and usually provides a map of each parish. The volumes for Somerset are much more recent than those for other counties. It appears to be a work in progress, only covering about half the county so far. A map of the places covered in the series is given in Volume 6, but 3 more volumes have been published since then. If a parish is included there will be a note in its Research Tips.
- The Somerset and Dorset Family History Society
- The Weston super Mare Family History Society
- The Bristol and Avon Family History Society
- A list of all Somerset parishes with online transcripts of parish registers The size of Somerset makes this a huge project. If it does not yield what you are looking for, try getting in touch with the organizer with patience and politeness.
- Somerset Online Parish Clerk project home page
- A collection of West Somerset Parish Register Transcriptions are online courtesy of Martin Southwood
Online Transcriptions
Other Resources
Picture Gallery
| Primitive Methodist Chapel
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Categories: Somerset, England | Featured Article | Leigh upon Mendip, Somerset, England | Mells, Somerset, England | Frome Hundred, Somerset, England | Mells and Leigh Hundred, Somerset, England | Frome Rural, Somerset, England | Mendip District, Somerset, England
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