Little Leighs

Little Leighs
Church of St John the Evangelist
Little Leighs
Location within Essex
Civil parish
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townCHELMSFORD

Little Leighs is a village in the civil parish of Great and Little Leighs,[1] in the Chelmsford district of Essex, England. Little Leighs lies beside the River Ter, just south of the village of Great Leighs and west of the A131 road.

History

The name Leighs comes from the Old English leah meaning a clearing in a wood.[2]

In Saxon times there appears to have been a single vill called Leighs. It was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Lega in the Chelmsford hundred of Essex. The vill was at that time split between two owners.[3][4]

No church or priest was mentioned at Leighs in the Domesday Book, but it subsequently came to be administered as two parishes, Great Leighs and Little Leighs. The church of St John the Evangelist at Little Leighs dates back to the early 12th century.[5]

In 1949 the parish was merged with neighbouring Great Leighs to form a new civil parish called "Great and Little Leighs".[6][7] At the 1931 census (the last before the abolition of the civil parish), Little Leighs had a population of 158.[8]

References

  1. ^ "Great & Little Leighs Parish Council | Home". Archived from the original on 12 March 2007.
  2. ^ "Great and Little Leighs". Key to English Place-Names. University of Nottingham. Retrieved 8 November 2025.
  3. ^ Powell-Smith, Anna. "[Great and Little] Leighs". Open Domesday. Retrieved 8 November 2025.
  4. ^ The Domesday Book online. "Essex L-O". Retrieved 14 May 2016.
  5. ^ Historic England. "Church of St John the Evangelist (Grade II*) (1122132)". National Heritage List for England.
  6. ^ "Few voted at battle of Leighs". Essex Newsman. Chelmsford. 29 March 1949. p. 1. Retrieved 8 November 2025.
  7. ^ "Chelmsford Registration District". UKBMD. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
  8. ^ "Population statistics Little Leighs AP/CP through time". A Vision of Britain. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
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