Place:Abbots Leigh, Somerset, England

Watchers
NameAbbots Leigh
Alt namesAbbots-leighsource: Family History Library Catalog
Abbots-Leighsource: hyphenated
TypeChapelry, Civil parish
Coordinates51.46°N 2.65°W
Located inSomerset, England
Also located inAvon, England     (1974 - 1996)
See alsoBedminster, Somerset, Englandancient parish in which it was a chapelry
Portbury Hundred, Somerset, Englandhundred in which it was located
Long Ashton Rural, Somerset, Englandrural district 1889-1974
Woodspring District, Avon, Englandnon-metropolitan district municipality covering the area 1974-1996
North Somerset, Somerset, Englandunitary authority covering the area since 1996
NOTE: Abbots Leigh should not be confused with the village of Abbotsleigh in Devon, England.
The text in this section is expanded from an article in Wikipedia

Abbots Leigh (#1 on map) is a civil parish and a village in Somerset, England, about 3 miles (4.8 km) west of the centre of Bristol. Abbots Leigh was part of the Long Ashton Rural District from 1889 until 1974 when it became part of the Woodspring District in the short-lived modern county of Avon. When Avon was abolished in 1996, Woodspring became the North Somerset unitary authority. Abbots Leigh parish has a population of 799 in the UK census of 2011.

Prior to the establishments of rural and urban districts in 1894, Abbots Leigh was in the Hundred of Portbury and in the Bedminster Poor Law Union.

History

The village became Abbots Leigh in the mid-12th century when Robert Fitzharding (1st Earl of Berkeley) purchased the manor, having been rewarded as Lord of the Manor of Portbury by the king. He also purchased Bedminster, Hareclive and Billeswick manors. He went on to found the Abbey of St Augustine at what was Billeswick, and bequeathed the income from the parish to support the abbey.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Abbots Leigh.

Image:Long Ashton Rural 1900 small.png

Research Tips

  • GENUKI page on Abbots Leigh.
  • 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
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Abbots Leigh. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.