Description
Leigh, a parish, formerly a chapelry of Yetminster, in Dorsetshire, but separated in 1842 and constituted a parish in 1866. It is 3 miles SE of Yetminster station on the G.W.R., and 6 SSW of Sherborne. There is a post and money order office under Sherborne; telegraph office, Chetnole. Area of the parish, 2025 acres; population, 395. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £196 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Salisbury. The church is good, and was thoroughly restored in 1889. There is a Wesleyan chapel. Totnell is a hamlet in the parish.
Parish Church
The church of St. Andrew is an edifice of stone, in the Late Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave of three bays, north aisle, south porch and an embattled western tower with pinnacles, containing 5 bells: there is a memorial window to the Rev. Newton Henry Smart, a former vicar, d. 1854, and also one to Thomas Ffooks, d. 1910: the church was restored in 1854, and again in 1890, and affords 130 sittings.
The register dates from the year 1847.
