Church Leigh, Staffordshire Genealogy

Parish History
Leigh is an Ancient Parish in the county of Staffordshire. Other places in the parish include: Church Leigh, Dodsley, Field, Field Withington, Leigh with Dodsley, Painley Hill, Middleton Green, Upper and Lower Nobut, Withington Upper and Lower Leigh and Church Leigh, Withington, Lower Nobut, Middleton Green, Painley Hill, Upper Leigh, Upper Nobut, and Lower Leigh.

LEIGH (All Saints), a parish, in the union of Uttoxeter, S. division of the hundred of Totmonslow, N. division of the county of Stafford, 7 miles (S. by E.) from Cheadle; containing 1012 inhabitants. This parish, including the township of Field, comprises 7037a. 39p., of which about one-third is arable, and a very little in wood, though hedge-row timber is abundant; the surface is varied, the soil clay, and the scenery generally pleasing. It is intersected by the river Blithe; and a branch of the North Staffordshire railway passes through. Park Hall, an ancient mansion now a farmhouse, is surrounded by a moat. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £14. 0. 5., and in the gift of Lord Bagot: the tithes have been commuted for £688. 15., and the glebe comprises 69½ acres, with a house. The church is an ancient cruciform structure, mostly in the decorated English style, with a square embattled tower rising from the centre; the south aisle has an altar-tomb, of the date 1523, to Sir John and Lady Aston, with their recumbent effigies, and in the north transept are monuments to the Ashenhurst family. This church was lately restored at a cost of nearly £6000. The chancel was entirely rebuilt at the sole expense of the late incumbent, the present Bishop of Bath and Wells; it has a stone groined roof, and the pavement is the most beautiful specimen of encaustic tiling that has yet been produced. The eastern window, a decorated one of seven lights, is filled with stained glass, by Wailes, of Newcastle; the subject is the "Communion of Saints," the church being dedicated to All Saints, and the design and execution of it are perhaps superior to any other modern performance: the north-east and south-east windows are filled with ancient stained glass. A free school for boys was endowed by Stephen Spencer, in 1620, with lands now producing about £72. 15. per annum; and other schools are supported by W. Evans, Esq.

From: 'Leigh - Leigh-Wooley', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 62-65. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51102 Date accessed: 23 March 2011.

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
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Census records
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Poor Law Unions
Uttoxeter Poor Law Union, Staffordshire

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Staffordshire 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
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
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