Place:


Leyton  Essex

 

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Leyton like this:

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.

Leyton through time

Leyton is now part of Waltham Forest district. Click here for graphs and data of how Waltham Forest has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Leyton itself, go to Units and Statistics.

How to reference this page:

GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Leyton, in Waltham Forest and Essex | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.

URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/721

Date accessed: 28th March 2024


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