Leigh is a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the English county of Staffordshire. The parish includes the village of Church Leigh, together with the settlements of Withington, Upper Leigh, Lower Leigh, Morrilow Heath, Middleton Green, Dods Leigh, Godstone and Field. Church Leigh is WNW of the town of Uttoxeter, north east of Stafford and north west of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. The other settlements are within of Church Leigh.

Transport

;Roads Church Leigh lies 0.8 miles south of the A50 that runs from Warrington to Leicester and is dualled on this section (between Stoke-on-Trent and the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which ...

). ;Rail The nearest railway station is at Uttoxeter for the

Crewe to Derby line Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston, ...

on the national network. Leigh railway station was opened by the North Staffordshire Railway in 1848 and was closed in 1966 ;Other The nearest airport is East Midlands Airport between

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby g ...

Loughborough Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England, the seat of Charnwood Borough Council and Loughborough University. At the 2011 census the town's built-up area had a population of 59,932 , the second large ...

and

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

History

Church Leigh has an entry in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

of 1086. In the great book Church Leigh is recorded by the name ''Lege''. The Aston family were the main landowners here in the seventeenth century. They were a junior branch of the prominent Staffordshire family of that name. The senior branch held the Scots title Lord Aston of Forfar.

Notable people

* Sir William Aston (1613 in Leigh - 1671) a barrister, politician, soldier and a justice of the

Court of King's Bench (Ireland) The Court of King's Bench (of Queen's Bench when the sovereign was female, and formerly of Chief Place or Chief Pleas) was one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland. It was a mirror of the Court of King's Bench in England. The King's Be ...

. * Ernald Lane (born 1836) an Anglican priest, Rector of Leigh, then a prebendary of Lichfield Cathedral until 1888 when he became Archdeacon of Stoke; also a fine rower who represented Oxford in the 1858 Boat Race * Aaron Bell (born 1980) Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Newcastle-under-Lyme since 2019 lives in Leigh

Localities

The civil parish of Leigh is centred on the clustered village of Church Leigh but has six satellite

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. Its size relative to a parish can depend on the administration and region. A hamlet may be considered to be a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a lar ...

. Separating the last four from the first is a field buffer including the River Blithe which flows south, via the

Blithfield Reservoir Blithfield Reservoir is a large raw water reservoir in Staffordshire, England, owned by South Staffordshire Water. Some 800 acres (324 hectares) of reservoir was formed on land sold by Baron Bagot to the South Staffordshire Water Works (SSWW) i ...

lake south to feed the

River Trent The Trent is the third-longest river in the United Kingdom. Its source is in Staffordshire, on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through and drains the North Midlands. The river is known for dramatic flooding after storms and ...

Alrewas Alrewas ( ) is a village and civil parish in the Lichfield District of Staffordshire, England. Geography The village is beside the River Trent and about northeast of Lichfield. It is located southwest of Burton-on-Trent. The parish is bounded ...

, Staffordshire.

Withington

Withington is a

linear settlement A linear settlement is a (normally small to medium-sized) settlement or group of buildings that is formed in a long line. Many of these settlements are formed along a transport route, such as a road, river, or canal. Others form due to physical re ...

on five lanes that is separated to the west from Church Leigh by fields covering 300m; its oldest farmhouse is a

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. Very well known for its pub and Lolo&Jojo.

Upper Leigh

Upper Leigh is a

on five or six lanes that is separated to the south-east from Lower Leigh by fields covering 100m; it has three listed buildings: Moor Farm, Moor House Farm and Manor Farm.

Lower Leigh

Lower Leigh is on a winding lane, separated from the village Primary School and recreation ground by less than 100 metres, to its north-west. The middle of the parish's three bridges along the lanes over the River Blithe is close to the centre of Lower Leigh. Next to this bridge is the aptly-named Brook Farmhouse.

Morrilow Heath

This is the largest hamlet in area and population, and the most remote. To the south-west, it is on high ground and has a salient boundary as far as the source of the Sprink Brook.

Middleton Green

Middleton Green is small in population and less than 200m north-east of Morrilow Heath and is south-west of Lower Leigh. Birchwood Park, an isolated farm, towards the Sprink Brook was historically a manor of sorts and is an architectural listed building, like the others in the parish which are non-ecclesiastical, at Grade II only. Big Wood, rises to the southern border here with extensive views over the rest of the villageBirchwood Park

Dods Leigh

This traditionally agricultural cluster of buildings includes a chapel, and is south of Lower Leigh.OS Explorer Map 259, Derby, Ashbourne & Cheadle.

Godstone

Just 300m south of Dods Leigh, a traditional manor forms a

, the traces of which can be made out from the properties, The Orchard, Godstone House and Godstone Cottage, as well as Old Woodcutter, the main four buildings.

Field

Six farms make up a cluster which forms Field; the Sprink Brook discharges to the River Blythe at a point in the south of the hamlet.

References

External links

{{authority control Civil parishes in Staffordshire Borough of East Staffordshire Villages in Staffordshire