Great Leighs, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex

Parish History
Great Leighs St Mary is an Ancient Parish in Essex. The Saxon round tower is one of only six remaining in Essex.

The diocese of Chelmsford was created in 1914, prior to this Essex parishes were in the jurisdiction of the Bishops of London until 1845 when they transferred to the diocese of Rochester. The diocese of Chelmsford has 474 parishes and 600 churches and is the second largest region in the church of England outside London.

LEIGHS, GREAT (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Chelmsford, partly in the hundred of Chelmsford, S. division, and partly in that of Witham, N. division, of Essex, 4½ miles (S. S. W.) from Braintree; containing, with the hamlet of Chatley, 765 inhabitants. The parish is intersected by the road from London to Norwich, and comprises about 3000 acres of land, formerly in pasture, from which circumstance it is supposed to have derived its name; the soil is various, consisting in some parts of a hard gravel, and in others of a sandy loam of tolerable fertility. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £25. 7. 1., and in the patronage of Lincoln College, Oxford: the tithes have been commuted for £865. The church is a very ancient edifice, with a round tower of flint and stone, surmounted by an octangular spire of wood. Various benefactions have been made for the benefit of the poor. On the side of the road from Braintree to Chelmsford was a hermitage, now converted into an inn.

From: 'Leighland - Lench-Wick', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 65-68. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51103&amp;amp;strquery=great leighs Date accessed: 21 February 2011.

Great Leighs is a village and civil parish in Colchester Borough and district of Essex County Council. In 2008 Great Leighs became home to the first new racecourse in 80 years, when the nearby Essex County Showground was converted into a state-of-the-art horse-racing venue. Great Leighs Racecourse held its first race meeting on 20 April 2008 and staged its first meeting fully open to the public from 28-29 May 2008.

Great Leighs is also the location of the oldest Inn in England. St. Anne's Castle, situated on the junction of Main Road and Boreham Road, is also reputed to be haunted.

The full history of Saint Anne's Castle' has been lost in the midst of time. However, it is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 and lays claim to be the oldest licensed premises in England, as it served ale to the pilgrims travelling to Thomas Becket's tomb in the 12th Century.

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
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.

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Essex 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.