Place:Lea, Wiltshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Lea from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"LEA, a village and a parish in Malmsbury [registration] district, Wilts. The village stands 1½ mile ESE of Malmsbury, and 7½ SW of Minety [railway] station; and has a post office under Malmsbury.

"The parish contains also the hamlet of Cleaverton, and is all included in Malmsbury [municipal] borough. Acres: 1,739. Real property, with Garsdon: £4,815. Population: 432. Houses: 99. The manor belongs to the Earl of Pembroke. There is a large corn mill. The living is a vicarage, annexed to the rectory of Garsdon, in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. The church is of Norman or perhaps Saxon date; was restored in 1840; and has a tower. There are an Independent chapel, a free school, and charities £6."

The same gazetteer described Cleaverton or Cleverton as follows:

"CLEAVERTON, a hamlet in Lea parish, Wilts; 1 mile SE of Malmsbury. Population: 116."

(Source: A Vision of Britain through Time)

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Lea is a village in Wiltshire, England. It is approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) east of Malmesbury. It is part of the civil parish of Lea and Cleverton which includes the village of Garsdon and the hamlet of Cleverton. Garsdon was a separate parish until 1934.

The Woodbridge Brook flows through the parish to join the Bristol Avon. The brook and the river form part of the western boundary of the parish.

An early resident of Lea, in 1340, was Ralph of Combe and his name survives in the name applied to the southwest corner of the village of Lea, which is Combe Green (Ordnance Survey spelling), sometimes misspelt as Coombe Green.

The Church of St Giles at Lea dates from the 14th century.

Research Tips

• A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 14:pp119-126 - Parish: Lea and Claverton". British History Online. University of London.
• From this Ancestry page you can browse the Wiltshire parishes which have parish register transcripts online, quite often from very early dates. However, reading the early ones requires skill and patience. Transcriptions should also be in FamilySearch.
• A further collection of online source references will be found on the county page for Wiltshire.