LEIGH, Gloucestershire - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"LEIGH, a parish in the lower divisions of the hundreds of Deerhurst and Westminster, county Gloucester, 5 miles N.W. of Cheltenham, its post town, and 4½ S. of Tewkesbury. It is a small agricultural village, situated in the vale of Gloucester, near the river Severn and the Comb canal. The parish is intersected by the road leading from Gloucester to Tewkesbury. It comprises the hamlet of Evington. The surface is level, and richly wooded with oak and elm. A considerable part of the land is in pasture and meadow, and is occasionally inundated by the overflow of the rivers. The soil is a blue clay, but very productive.

The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol, value £247, in the patronage of the lord chancellor. The church, dedicated to St. James, is a neat structure with an embattled tower containing five bells. The parochial charities produce about £52 per annum, chiefly the produce of the church lands, &c. There is a mixed school under the British and Foreign School Society. The Dean and Chapter of Westminster are lords of the manor."

"EVINGTON, a hamlet in the parish of Leigh, lower division of the county Gloucester, 4 miles S.W. of Tewkesbury. It is situated near the river Severn."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]