Leigh, Kent Genealogy

England   Kent

Parish History
Leigh (pronounced Lye) St Mary is an Ancient Parish which includes Hollanden.

The church was originally built in the 13th century, a fire in reign of Henry VII destroyed part of it and restoration has taken palce in subsequent centuries.

In 1860-61 the church underwent considerable reconstruction. At the time, the chancel was the responsibility of the Lay Rector, who in this case was Lord de Lisle, while the parish was responsible for the rest of the building. The two parties employed different architects; Lord de Lisle using George Devey, and the parish Charles Bailey, a cousin of Thomas Farmer Bailey, the owner of Hall Place. The two architects used different types of stone, as is obvious when viewing the outside of the building.

Further rebuilding between 1889 and 1892 was undertaken.

Penshurst Airfield later RAF Penshurst is within the parish and was used in both World Wars and closed in 1946, it included a period as an alternate civil aviation landing landing for Croydon Airport in bad weather. In the Second World war it served as an emergency landing ground.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
Original deposited registers are held at:

Centre for Kentish Studies,County Hall,Maidstone,Kent ME14 1XX

01622 694363

Fax: 01622 694379

archives@kent.gov.uk

Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection

Census records
Contributor: Include an overview if there is any unique information, such as the census for X year was destroyed. Add a link to online sites for indexes and/or images. Also add a link to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Poor Law Unions
Sevenoaks Poor Law Union, Kent

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Kent Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
Contributor: Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.