Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for LEYTON

LEYTON, a village, a parish, and a sub-district, in West Ham district, Essex. The village stands adjacent to the river Lea, the Great Eastern railway, the boundary with Middlesex, and the London and Ongar railway, 5¼ miles NE by E of Bishopsgate, London; took its name, signifying Leatown, from its position on the Lea; occupies or is near the site of a Roman station, near the Roman or Stone way to Colchester; and where many coins and other relics of the Romans and some of the Saxons have been found; belonged to King Harold; comprises now one long street; contains respectable and handsome houses, embosomed in trees; is continuous with Knotts-Green and Lea-Bridge, which formerly were separate hamlets; and has a station on the Ongar railway, and a post office‡ under London NE. The parish contains also the post offices‡ of Leyton-Street, Low Leyton, and Lea-Bridge, under Leyton, London NE; includes the village and chapelry of Leytonstone; is sometimes called Low Leyton; and lies within the jurisdiction of the metropolitan police. Acres, 2,241. Real property, £23,289. Pop. in 1851,3,901; in 1861,4,794. Houses, 762. Leyton Hon se, Leyton Park, Etloe House, Solway House, Leytonstone House, Forest House, Wallwood House, and Buxton House are prominent residences; and there are many other fine ones. Remains of ancient entrenchments, with a square double embankment surrounded by a moat, are at Ruckholts. Temple mills, on the Lea, were mills said to have belonged to the Knights Templars; but they were demolished to give place to water-works. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of London. Value, £450. * Patron, John Pardoe, Esq. The parish church, or church of St. Mary, is a small plain brick building; and contains monuments of Stripe the antiquary, who was vicar here for nearly 70 years,-Bowyer, the famous printer,-Goring, Earl of Norwich,-Sir Michael Hickes, and others. Another church, called the church of All Saints, was built in 1865, at a cost of £2,147; is in the decorated English style, cruciform, with five-light E window; and contains 560 sittings. There are a Wesleyan chapel in Leyton, an Independent chapel in Leytonstone, national schools in both places, eight alms houses, and a workhouse. The total yearly value of charities is £178. The workhouse is for West Ham district; and, at the census of 1861, had 572 inmates. Sir T. Roe, ambassador to the Great Mogul in the time of Charles I., was a native. -The sub-district contains also the parish of Wanstead. Acres, 4,245. Pop., 7,536. Houses, 1,108.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village, a parish, and a sub-district"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Leyton AP/CP       Leyton SubD       West Ham RegD/PLU       Essex AncC
Place names: LEYTON     |     LOW LEYTON
Place: Leyton

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