Lea, Wiltshire
Historical Description
Lea, a village and a parish in Wiltshire. The village stands 1¼ mile ESE of Malmesbury station on the G.W.R.. and has a post office under Malmesbury; money order and telegraph office, Malmesbury. The parish contains also the hamlet of Cleaverton, and is all included in Malmesbury rural sanitary authority. Acreage, 1774; population of the civil parish, 450; of the ecclesiastical, 591. The manor belongs to the Earl of Pembroke. There is a large corn-mill. The living is a vicarage, annexed to the rectory of Garsdon, in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; value, , £300 with residence. The church of St Giles was entirely rebuilt in 1880. There are Congregational and Methodist chapels.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Wiltshire | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Lea St. Giles | |
Hundred | Malmesbury | |
Poor Law union | Malmesbury |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1754.
Churches
Church of England
St. Giles (parish church)
The church of St. Giles, which was an ancient fabric of stone, was rebuilt in 1880 in the Gothic style, and now consists of chancel, nave of five bays, north aisle, south porch and an embattled western tower containing 5 bells: the church affords 200 sittings.
Congregational
Congregational Chapel
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 Lea from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Lea (St. Giles))
Maps
Online maps of Lea 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 Wiltshire papers online: