Leigh-De-La-Mere (St. Margaret)
LEIGH-DE-LA-MERE (St. Margaret), a parish, in the union and hundred of Chippenham; Chippenham and Calne, and N. divisions of Wilts, 4¾ miles (N. N. W.) from Chippenham; containing 113 inhabitants, and consisting of 1400 acres by computation. At this place Alfred encamped on the night before his attack upon the Danes at Edingdon; and near a field called Courtfield, is a garden surrounded by a moat, supposed to be the site of a palace of one of the Saxon kings. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £8, and in the gift of Joseph Neeld, Esq.: the tithes have been commuted for £236, and the glebe comprises 47 acres. Mr. Neeld has rebuilt the church and the parsonage. The living was held by a brother of Bishop Latimer.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.