South Leigh, Oxfordshire

Historical Description

Leigh, South, a village and a parish in Oxfordshire, on the East Gloucestershire branch of the G.W.R., on which there is a station, 8 miles NNW from Oxford, and 2½ , ESE from Witney. Post town and money order and telegraph office, Witney. Acreage, 2365; population, 325. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £214 with residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Oxford. The church is a small building of stone, chiefly in the Perpendicular style, but there is a Norman doorway to the chancel with some singular ornaments. It was restored in 1872, when some faded mural paintings of the 15th century were discovered, which have since been faithfully restored. From the pulpit of this church the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., preached his first sermon, 16 Oct., 1725. There is also a. small Wesleyan chapel. St James' College, established in 1878, is a preparatory establishment for the public schools.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Oxfordshire Family History Society and Oxfordshire History Centre, have images of the Parish Registers for Oxfordshire online.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for South Leigh from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Leigh, South)

Land and Property

A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Oxfordshire is available online

Maps

Online maps of South Leigh 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 Oxfordshire newspapers online:

• Oxford Journal
• Banbury Advertiser
• Banbury Guardian
• Oxford University and City Herald
• Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette
• Faringdon Advertiser and Vale of the White Horse Gazette
• Oxford Times
• Banbury Beacon
• Ossett Observer

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitations of Oxfordshire, 1566, 1574 &1634 are available on the Heraldry page.