Place:Leigh, Wiltshire, England

Watchers
NameLeigh
TypeChapelry, Civil parish
Coordinates51.628°N 1.912°W
Located inWiltshire, England
See alsoAshton Keynes, Wiltshire, Englandparish of which it was a chapelry until 1884
Highworth Cricklade and Staple Hundred, Wiltshire, Englandhundred in which it was located
Cricklade and Wootton Bassett Rural, Wiltshire, Englandrural district, 1894 - 1974
North Wiltshire District, Wiltshire, England1974-2009
Wiltshire District, Wiltshire, England2009--
source: Family History Library Catalog
the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Leigh is a village and civil parish in north Wiltshire, England, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) southeast of Ashton Keynes and 2.5 miles (4.0 km) west of Cricklade. It is near to the county border with Gloucestershire. The parish includes the hamlet of Waterhay.

The infant River Thames forms part of the northern boundary of the parish. Other boundaries are a short section of the Swill Brook which meets the Thames in the northwest; its tributary the Derry Brook in the west; and the Bournlake stream in the east.

Farmland at Leigh was part of Ashton Keynes manor, which was held by Cranborne Abbey in 1086; ownership was transferred to Tewkesbury Abbey in 1102. The manor passed to the Crown on the dissolution of Tewkesbury in 1539, and in 1548 Edward VI granted the land to William Sharington as a separate manor. The estate was sold in lots by Edward Craggs-Eliot in 1803.

Leigh was a chapelry of Ashton Keynes parish until 1884 when it was made a separate parish. The parish was enlarged in 1984 when farmland south of the Malmesbury road was transferred from Cricklade parish.

The population of the parish peaked in the 19th century, with 326 recorded at the 1871 census. Numbers fell to 264 by 1911, then gradually recovered to earlier levels with 362 recorded in 2011.

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