Little Leighs, Essex

Description
Leighs, Little, a parish in Essex, on the river Ter, about 5 miles SW from Braintree station on the G.E.R., and 7 NNE from Chelmsford. Post town, Chelmsford; money order office, Felsted; telegraph office, Great Leighs. Acreage, 1079; population, 115. A priory of Black canons was founded here in the time of Henry III. by Ralph de Gernon, was given at the dissolution to Sir Richard Rich, was converted by him into a splendid mansion, passed to the Duke of Buckingham, belongs now to Guy's Hospital, and has left extensive and interesting remains. The living is a rectory in the diocese of St Albans; gross value, £385 with residence. The church is a small but very ancient building in the Early Norman style, dating probably from the llth century. It has an ancient tomb upon which lies the full length recumbent figure of a priest wearing the eucharistic vestments, which is carved out of a solid log of oak. Only one other ancient wooden ecclesiastical effigy, viz., that of the Abbot of Darley in All Saints' Church, Derby, is known to exist in England.