Rector of
Goldhanger 1846 - 1893
Charles Brian Leigh was Rector of
Goldhanger and Little Totham for 47 years between 1846 and 1893. His elder brother
Edward Morris Leigh was Rector for ten years before him until his premature
death in 1846. Other members of the family held clerical positions in churches
in the area. His father, Thomas Leigh, purchased the Goldhanger and Lt. Totham
benefice or Perpetual Advowson in 1832. The family then owned Follyfaunts,
Pumphouse Farm, The (old) Rectory, The Parsonage House, together with 3600
acres of farm land and many cottages in and around the village. The Revd. C B Leigh and his family are
perhaps best known for funding the major refurbishment of St. Peters Church,
building a new Rectory in the 1850s, and the
building of a new village school in 1875.
Here is a summary of the Revd. C B Leighs life with details following on
year
|
summary |
|
|
1805 |
His father Thomas Leigh was appointed Rector at
Wickham Bishops
|
|
|
1816 |
Charles Brian Leigh was Born into an
ecclesiastical family
.....................
|
|
|
1832 |
The family bought the Goldhanger and Lt Totham
benefice
. |
|
|
1834 |
He attended Cambridge University
.........
. |
|
|
1838 |
He attained a BA at Cambridge
.. |
|
|
1841 |
Was appointed curate at Wickham Bishops by his
father
|
|
|
1846 |
His brother Edward, who was Rector at Goldhanger,
died
|
|
|
1846 |
Revd C B Leigh was appointed Rector of Goldhanger
|
|
|
1847 |
Revd C B Leigh married Mary, daughter of MP Sir J
T Bart and a widow
.. |
|
|
1848 |
His father Thomas Leigh paid for a school in the
Pit Cottages at Goldhanger
.. |
|
|
1848 |
His father Thomas Leigh died
. |
|
|
1848 |
Sarah Leigh donated a silver communion service in
memory of her father
. |
|
|
1848 |
The Churchwardens and other wrote a letter of
thanks to Sarah
. |
|
|
1849 |
Sarah Leigh built a new Wickham Bishops Church
|
|
|
1850 |
Revd Leighs wife Mary was killed in an accident
with a cow at the age of 47
. |
|
|
1851 |
The family built a new rectory at the top of
Church Street
.. |
|
|
1852 |
Revd C B Leigh married Olympia Hanbury
.. |
|
|
1854 |
St Peters Church was restored at the expense of
the family
.. |
|
|
1858 |
The Leigh family donated a stained glass window
dedicated to Priscilla Leigh
. |
|
|
1850s |
Revd C B Leigh persuaded villagers to built red
brick wall around the village
|
|
|
1861 |
Rectory domestic staff listed in census
|
|
|
1863 |
Revd Leigh became a Justice of the Peace in Essex
|
|
|
1875 |
The family built a new school in Church St
. |
|
|
1880 |
The family organised entertainment in the school
.. |
|
|
1881 |
The marriage of the Rectors youngest daughter
took place in St Peters
.. |
|
|
1890 |
His father the Revd Thomas Leigh died
|
|
|
1891 |
Revd C B Leigh was declared bankrupt
|
|
|
1893 |
A presentation to Miss Leigh by Goldhanger parishioners
|
|
|
1893 |
Revd C B Leigh retired as Rector
.. |
|
|
1905 |
The Rectors wife Olympia Priscilla died
.. |
|
|
1906 |
The Revd. Leigh's properties in and around Goldhanger were
auctioned off
|
|
|
1907 |
Revd C B Leigh died at Brighton and was buried at
Goldhanger
.. |
there are some
inconsistencies in the information given here that have not yet been resolved
____________________________
A partial family tree of the Revd. C B Leighs family
In 1832 the Leigh family bought the Perpetual Advowson
poster advertising the
Benefice (enlarge)
The following paragraphs are taken
from Maura Benhams Book: Goldhanger An Estuary Village
The
Revd. Charles Brian Leigh was a member of an ecclesiastical family from Wickam
Bishops. The benefice at Goldhanger was bought in 1836 by his father the Revd.
Thomas Leigh, Rector of Wickham Bishops, and he put in his older son Edward
Morris Leigh as rector who had been his curate at Wickham Bishops.
The
tithe records fro Goldhanger of 1839 show Edward Morris Leigh as owner and
occupier of two properties, the Glebe including the parsonage house, and the
Pump House Farm at the top of Church Street. He also owned and let Follyfaunts.
The family also owned and let land near to Wash Bridge. After ten years Edward
died and his younger brother Charles Brian Leigh look his place, remaining in
the living until 1893.
The
farther, the Revd. Thomas Leigh, died in 1848, and a great deal of the family
money then seems to have been spent on the churches and rectories. Goldhanger
church was thoroughly restored. The south porch and probably part of the south
wall were rebuilt, and there was considerable reconstruction of the interior,
the chancel arch being rebuilt, window tracery renewed, and stained glass put
in. This sketch of the Church in the 1780 which hangs near the vestry shows
what previously looked like
A clean sweep was made of the fittings with replacement of font, pulpit, altar, choir stalls and seating. The Heigham memorials, evidently badly broken up, were put together to form one tomb with the remaining brass figure and inscription set in the top slab. By 1855 it had been 'thoroughly repaired and beautified'. Several memorials to the Leigh family can be seen in the Lady chapel and guttering outside the Church shows the initials 'C.B.L.' for Charles Brian Leigh
The Rev. C. B. Leigh had a good residence, but which ever house this was it does not seem to have been satisfactory, as in 1851-2 the Leigh family built a large red-brick Rectory at the northern end of Church Street (now called Goldhanger House). The 1861 Census gives details of the occupants and staffing at the new rectory. The household consisted of the Rector, his wife and three children, a governess, two nurses, and four domestic servants. People living in the village remember their grandparents and other old residents speaking of the Leigh family in the latter part of the century. They kept cows and provided free milk daily to all the village, and if anyone was ill dinner was provided as well. There were regular times when people could go to the house for advice, many being illiterate, and Mrs Leigh saw the women thrice weekly. Later the sons were said to be wild with big parties at the house and some guests staying at the Chequers.
The Rectory was designed by well known Victorian ecclesiastical architect Ewan Christian, who won an award for the design and which is described in great detail with architectural drawings in the book entitled Villa and Cottage Architecture. Extracts from the book are in A history of the Victorian Goldhanger Rectory . Pevsner suggested that Ewan Christian could also been involved in the restoration of St Peters Church.
one of the drawings from
Villa and Cottage Architecture
Lewis Carroll was said to have been among the visitors to the Rectory at the time the story of Alice and Wonderland was being written around 1865. It has been suggested that the idea for the treacle mines in the story was founded on the legend of the Tudwick Road treacle pits learnt about by Carroll while staying with the Rector.
In 1849 after their fathers death the Rectors sister Sarah built the new church at Wickham Bishops also designed by Ewan Christian, and at a personal cost of £4,000. Her brother Charles Brian laid the foundation stone.
Wickham Bishops new Church
in 1846 - the death of C B Leighs brother, Edward
a plaque in the Lady Chapel
____________________________
in
1847
In 1848 the Leigh family paid for a Church of England school in Goldhanger, which was probably located in the Pit Cottages on the Maldon Rd Triangle. A completely new village school in Church Street was built in 1875, which was also paid for by the Leigh family.
a postcard view of the
original school building
the classical Victorian
symmetry of the building suggests
this could also have been a
Ewan Christian design
At around the same time as the
school was being built the Revd. Leigh had red brick walls built around the
Church and encouraged parishioners to build similar walls along the streets in
the centre of the village. They were probably intended to keep out the animals
from the two farms located in the middle of the village. The wall appear in
many old postcard scenes and most
still exist (however they now need regular maintenance to cope with traffic
fumes and salt).
in 1848 - the death of C B Leighs father Thomas
|
a
plaque in the Lady Chapel There
is a monument to Thomas Leigh, Rector and President of Sion College 1829-30 in
St Magnus the Martyr Church, at Lower Thames Street in the City of
London. The
monument refers to him being buried at St Peter's Church, Goldhanger in Essex. |
|
Also in 1848 a silver communion service and a pair of silver alms dishes was donated to the Church by Sarah Leigh in memory of her late brother Edward.
|
the flagon, cup, and paten
donated by Sarah Leigh These are kept in the vault of Chelmsford cathedral |
|
|
Thank you letter written by parishioners (enlarge) |
From The Times of January 1850
We
regret to state that on Friday afternoon an accident of a very serious nature
occurred to the lady of the Rev. C. B. Leigh, of Wickham-place, rector of
Goldhanger, in this county, and sister to Sir John Tyrell, Bart., M.P. It
appears that Mrs. Leigh, accompanied by her son, was walking in the
Maldon-road, which leads into Witham, and when near the top of the road met a
cow with its calf at the corner leading from Newland or High-street.
Upon
seeing them a little dog, which Mrs. Leigh had with her, barked at the calf,
and the cow, irritated thereby, immediately ran at the dog, which fled to its
mistress for protection, and before it could be prevented, the cow had struck
Mrs. Leigh in the back, driving her with considerable violence against the
brickwork of part of the Angel Inn, in Witham. There every attention that
medical skill could suggest was paid her by Mr. Thomas Tomkin, surgeon, and as
soon as Mrs. Leigh was sufficiently recovered, she was removed to her residence
in Witham.
Her
face was severely bruised, but it was at first supposed that the injuries
inflicted were not of a very serious nature; it was, however, subsequently
ascertained that the blow had affected the spine, about the shoulders.
Immediate paralysis occurred, and serious apprehensions are entertained of a
fatal issue. Mr. W. Ferguson, the eminent surgeon from London, visited her on
the following day and has been in frequent attendance since the lamentable
occurrence, but we are grieved at not being now able to give a more favourable
account of the patient. Yesterday there was no return of either sensation or
motion in any part of the body below the part injured.
1854 - restoration of the Church and organ donated
by the parishioners
In 1858 the Leigh family donated the stained glass windows for the Lady Chapel which are dedicated to Priscilla Leigh of Marks Hall, who died at the age of 28 in that year.
the Lady Chapel
a plaque in the Lady Chapel
1863 - Villagers recommend the Revd Leigh as a
magistrate
1879
& 1880 - Entertainment in the school
1880
- the marriage of Mary Leigh at Goldhanger
1887 -an extract from The Royal Lineage of our
Noble and Gentle Families
1890
- an obituary of his father Thomas Leigh
1893 - a presentation to Miss Leigh
1906 - Two extracts from the full sales catalogue of C B
Leighs substantial property holdings in Goldhanger which were sold in 25 lots at an auction
just before his death
1907
|
A small painting of the Rector in the Church |
a plague in memory of the
Rector in the Church |
back to..
top summary Local Characters home