Place:Leighton, Shropshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

"Leighton and Eaton Constantine" is a civil parish in Shropshire, England. It was formerly the parish of Leighton and absorbed the neighbouring parish of Eaton Constantine in 1934. The parish also includes the hamlets of Upper Longwood and Garmston. Upper Longwood was in Eaton Constantine before the merger, but Garmston was in Leighton. The name Leighton and Eaton Constantine was probably not adopted until after 1974.

The parish, which had a population of 420 at the 2001 UK census and 467 at the 2011 UK census, is around six miles southwest of Telford. The present parish is surrounded by the parishes of Wroxeter (to the north) and, clockwise, Little Wenlock, Buildwas, Sheinton, and Cressage

Leighton village is situated on the River Severn, on the Shrewsbury and Worcester turnpike road near the Severn Valley Railway, and comprises 2,151 acres (870 ha). The village itself is small, and comprises just a few houses, a church, a public house and Leighton Hall (a red-brick building built in around 1778). There are several black and white buildings which line the Shrewsbury to Ironbridge road which runs through the village, and provides the main transport link for the villagers. Standing at the entrance to the hall is Leighton Lodge, which is significant as it is the birthplace of Shropshire author Mary Webb who wrote Precious Bane and various other stories about Shropshire.

The parish church (dedicated to St. Mary) has been key feature in Leighton since being restored in around 1716, after being rebuilt on the site of a Norman church. The two iron tombstones in the Nave, dated 1677 and 1696 were cast in the village where iron was smelted from at least 1650. On the south of the chancel arch is an heraldic device which were common around the 1800s, and this particular one was a memorial of the head of the manorial family. The church registers begin in 1661, and in the Church porch, there are records of the various benefactions for the poor of the parish. Inside the church are many memorials to the Leighton family including an effigy possibly dating from the 13th century. It depicts a knight in chain mail. Other effigies are dedicated to the Kynnersley family.

The parish was located in the South Bradford Hundred. From 1894 until 1974 the parish was in the Atcham Rural District of Shropshire, and absorbed the neighbouring Eaton Constantine in 1934. In 1974 rural districts throughout England were abolished and replaced with new non-metropolitan districts which combined the rural districts, urban districts, municipal boroughs and county boroughs that existed within their newly drawn geographical borders. The Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough, so created, existed until 2009 when it was replaced by a unitary authority called the Shropshire District which covered the whole of the county with the exception of The Wrekin District (to the east of Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough) which was formed in 1998.

Research Tips

• The historical short form for Shropshire was "Salop". This is quite often found in archive material.
• Shropshire Archives, Castle Gates, Shrewsbury SY1 2AQ
• Shropshire Family History Society.
• The GENUKI main page for Shropshire provides information on various topics covering the whole of the county, and there is also a link to a list of parishes. Under each parish there is a list of the settlements within it and brief description of each. This is a list of pre-1834 ancient or ecclesiastical parishes but there are suggestions as to how to find parishes set up since then.
• GENUKI also provides transcriptions of parish registers for numerous parishes throughout Shropshire. These will be noted at the bottom of this list as time permits for the parishes involved. Each register is preceded by historical notes from the editor-transciber and other details than simply births, marriages and deaths that have been found in the individual books from the parishes. These registers probably only go up to 1812 when the proscribed style for registers across the country was altered.
• GENUKI lists under each parish further references to other organizations who hold genealogical information for the local area. (URLs for these other websites may not be up to date.)
• The FamilyTree Wiki has a series of pages similar to those provided by GENUKI which may have been prepared at a later date and from more recent data. The wiki has a link to English Jurisdictions 1851. There is a list of all the parishes in existence in 1851 with maps indicating their boundaries. The website is very useful for finding the ecclesiastical individual parishes within large cities and towns.
• A Vision of Britain through Time, Shropshire, section "Units and Statistics" leads to analyses of population and organization of the county from about 1800 through 1974. There are similar pages available for all civil parishes, municipal boroughs and other administrative divisions that existed pre-1974. Descriptions provided are usually based on a gazetteer of 1870-72 which often provides brief notes on the economic basis of the settlement and significant occurences through its history.
• The two maps below indicate the boundaries between parishes, etc., but for a more detailed view of a specific area try a map from this selection. The oldest series are very clear at the third magnification offered. Comparing the map details with the GENUKI details for the same area is well worthwhile.

• Map of Shropshire illustrating urban and rural districts in 1900 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time. Parish boundaries and settlements within parishes are shown. (Unfortunately the online copy of this map has pencil codings in each parish which make it difficult to see the orignal.)
• Map of Shropshire urban and rural districts in 1944 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time. Parish boundaries and settlements within parishes are shown. This is not a repeat of the first map. There were a number of changes to urban and rural district structure in the 1930s.

• A map of the ancient divisions named "hundreds" is to be found in A Vision of Britain through Time. Some of the hundreds were broken into separate sections with other hundreds in between.
• The website British History Online provides four volumes of the Victoria County History Series on Shropshire. Volume 2 covers the religious houses of the county; Volume 4 provides a history of agriculture across the county, and Volumes 10 and 11 deal with Munslow Hundred, the Borough of Wenlock and the Telford area (i.e., the northeastern part of the county). The rest of the county is not presently covered. References to individual parishes will be furnished as time permits.
• A transcription of the Leighton parish registers is online and is provided through the auspices of GENUKI.