Leigh is a village and

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 ...

(with a parish council shared with Bransford) in the Malvern Hills district of the county of

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

, England. With just a few hundred inhabitants the parish lies on the A4103, the main

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...

to Hereford road, about 5 miles out of Worcester, whilst Malvern is also about 5 miles away. The parish includes Leigh, Brockamin, Leigh Sinton, Sandlin & Smith End Green. The local pronunciation is that the name rhymes with "lie". Due largely to the significant reduction of the hop industry in the area, Leigh, like many local villages, declined in the late 20th century; it lost its pub, its police station and its railway station (with the closure of the

Bromyard Bromyard is a town in Herefordshire, England, in the valley of the River Frome. It lies near the county border with Worcestershire on the A44 between Leominster and Worcester. Bromyard has a number of traditional half-timbered buildings, inc ...

branch line in the 1960s).

History

Leigh's Norman church (St. Edburga's) was built in 1100 by

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

monks from

Pershore Abbey Pershore Abbey, at Pershore in Worcestershire, was an Anglo-Saxon abbey and is now an Anglican parish church, the Church of the Holy Cross. History Foundation The foundation of the minster at Pershore is alluded to in a spurious charter of Ki ...

. It is listed by English heritage as a Grade I listed building.

Leigh Court Barn Leigh Court Barn is a cruck framed barn at Leigh, Worcestershire, England, built in the early fourteenth century to store produce for Pershore Abbey Pershore Abbey, at Pershore in Worcestershire, was an Anglo-Saxon abbey and is now an Angl ...

is the largest and one of the oldest cruck framed barns in Britain. A mile to the south at Castle Green are the earthwork and buried remains of a medieval motte and bailey castle. Enclosures of common lands caused riots at Leigh in 1778, where anti-enclosure rioters attacked the physical enclosure: Following the

Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 The ''Poor Law Amendment Act 1834'' (PLAA) known widely as the New Poor Law, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the Whig government of Earl Grey. It completely replaced earlier legislation based on the ''Poor Relie ...

Leigh Parish ceased to be responsible for maintaining the poor in its parish. This responsibility was transferred to

Martley Poor Law Union Following the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 individual parishes ceased to be responsible for maintaining the poor in their parish. Poor law unions were established. In west Worcestershire the Martley Poor Law Union was established to take the po ...

. The area is reputedly haunted by the ghost of a robber named Edmund Colles, who is said to appear in a coach drawn by four fire-breathing horses.

References

External links

Leigh & Bransford parish web site

Villages in Worcestershire Civil parishes in Worcestershire {{Worcestershire-geo-stub