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Name | Abbots Leigh |
Alt names | Abbots-leigh | source: Family History Library Catalog | | Abbots-Leigh | source: hyphenated |
Type | Chapelry, Civil parish |
Coordinates | 51.46°N 2.65°W |
Located in | Somerset, England |
Also located in | Avon, England (1974 - 1996) |
See also | Bedminster, Somerset, England | ancient parish in which it was a chapelry | | Portbury Hundred, Somerset, England | hundred in which it was located | | Long Ashton Rural, Somerset, England | rural district 1889-1974 | | Woodspring District, Avon, England | non-metropolitan district municipality covering the area 1974-1996 | | North Somerset, Somerset, England | unitary authority covering the area since 1996 |
NOTE: Abbots Leigh should not be confused with the village of Abbotsleigh in Devon, England.
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- 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.
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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
- 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
Categories: Somerset, England | Abbots Leigh, Somerset, England | Bedminster, Somerset, England | Portbury Hundred, Somerset, England | Long Ashton Rural, Somerset, England | Woodspring District, Avon, England | North Somerset District, Somerset, England
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