Leckhampton, Gloucestershire
Historical Description
Leckhampton, a village and a parish in Gloucestershire. The village stands under the Cotswolds, 2½ miles S of Cheltenham, was oncea market-town, has a station on the Banbury and Cheltenham branch of the G.W.R. and a post and money order office under Cheltenham; telegraph office, Moorend. The parish contains also outskirts of Cheltenham, and is partly included in that parliamentary borough. Acreage, 1614; population, 3363. The manor belonged to the Despencers, passed to the Giffards, the Norwoods, and the Tryes. Leckhampton Hill is a steep and curious member of the Cotswolds. It has an altitude of 979 feet, comprising 749 of lias formations, and 230 of inferior oolites; includes in the latter a fossiliferous freestone quarried for building, and commands at the summit a most exquisite view. Leckhampton Court is the chief residence. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; gross value, £720 with residence. The church is of the 15th century, was repaired and enlarged in 1866, comprises nave, aisles, chancel, and porch, with tower and spire, and contains a Norman font and recumbent effigies of Sir John Giffard and his wife, of the time of Edward III. Population of the ecclesiastical parish, 810. The ecclesiastical parish of St Philip and St James was constituted in 1869. Population, 2553. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; gross value, £400. The church is in the Perpendicular style, and consists of chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles, porch, and tower.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Gloucestershire | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Leckhampton St. Peter | |
| Hundred | Cheltenham | |
| Poor Law union | Cheltenham |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register of burials dates from the year 1682; baptisms, 1709; marriages, 1719.
The Gloucestershire Parish Registers are available online at Ancestry, in association with Gloucestershire Archives.
Churches
Church of England
St. Peter (parish church)
The church of St. Peter is an edifice of stone, principally in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave of six bays, aisles, north porch and a central tower, with spire, containing 8 bells, two of which were added in 1904: in the south aisle is a brass with effigies to William Norwood esq. ob. 1598, Elizabeth (Lygon) his wife, nine sons and two daughters, with six Latin elegiac verses; in the church are two recumbent effigies of stone, coloured, representing Sir John Gifford and his lady, c. 1330; the male figure is cross-legged: there is also an effigy of an ecclesiastic: all the windows are stained, and there are various handsome mural tablets, one of which is to the last lineal descendant of Sir Francis Drake: there are sittings for 500 persons: on the north side of the churchyard are two recumbent stone effigies much dilapidated.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Leckhampton from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Leckhampton (St. Peter))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Leckhampton are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following newspapers covering Gloucestershire online:
- Gloucester Citizen
- Gloucester Journal
- Gloucestershire Chronicle
- Gloucestershire Echo
- Cheltenham Chronicle
- Cheltenham Looker-On
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of the county of Gloucester, 1623 is available on the Heraldry page.