In the Domesday Book appears: "The King holds Cleeve. Earl Harold held it In the time of King Edward" . Shorty after the Norman Conquest the Manor of Cteeve came into the possession of William de Romara, who became Earl of Lincln in 1141 under King Stephen. His nephew, William, who. married Phillipa de Burgh, daughter of the Chancellor of England, inherited the estate. He was a very religious man and Cleeve Abbey near Washford.
Leighland St Giles Church
The monks of this Abbey served the chapel-of-ease dedicated to St Giles, but in the course of time they were forbidden to serve as parish priests. In 1320 a Vicar was ordained at Old Cleeve, who was also charged to attend the chapel of "St Giles of Leigh, and there every day to read the gospel, and administer consecrated bread and water, and thrice a year, viz, on Christmas, Easter and St Giles days to celebrate mass; to keep the key of the church, books, vestments and ornaments, to clean them and keep them clean."
The chapel of St Giles of Leigh seems to have been of ancient foundation, probably dating from Saxon times. The size of the old chapel was 46 feet by 19 and had a small bell cote and singing loft. It was linked with "the farm or grange of Leigh", which has a field called Giles' Ground and Giles' Rock in the middle of a copse called Cliff Wood.
There was of course, no road connecting the Abbey with Leigh and the Vicar, who would have been under the control of the Abbot, would probably have travelled on horseback. He would have used narrow tracks through the few houses which constituted Roadwater, up behind what is now Oatway Cottage, along the top of Road Wood, passing small groups of cottages at Traphole, Lower and Higher Hayne and Troutwells.
At this time the village of Leigh was listed in the Abbey rentals as having "18 tenements and land and watercourses £11.8.5 out of a gross total of £164.7.9".
After Henry VIII suppressed the monasteries and disbanded the monks, the Abbey church was completely destroyed, and its other buildings used for farming purposes. Eventually the King granted the estate to Robert, Earl of Sussex. Leigh and its lands were part of this.
Leighland had seven cottages in addition to the chapel, one of which was a shop which sold cheap beer, and during the Litany and Sermon time members of the orchestra and choir would slip away for a mug and a chat, returning in time to tune their instruments again after they had clambered up the stone steps that led to the singing loft from outside the West Front. Unfortunately the ancient chapel of St Giles was demolished in 1865 and replaced with the present day church at a cost of £1,200. It is built of stone in the early English style and consists of Chancel, nave, south porch and bell cote containing one bell. The stained glass east window was erected in 1889. The register dates from 1775 and the population in 1891 was 317. Leighland was formed into an ecclesiastical on 4th April 1865 but the patronage of the living still belongs to the Rector of Old Cleeve.
The old cottages, which were adjacent to the chapel, have now vanished. Both had little shops selling groceries and sweets, and here children went to buy 'a ha'porth of dumps'. The two old ladies who kept the shops were business rivals and bad friends. One was a spinster, while the other had buried three husbands. She always declared her willingness to marry a fourth, but this was not fulfilled, although she outlived the third by several years.
At the beginning of the last century the church school at Leighland was attended by close on a hundred children, who walked there from miles around in all directions. In those days a child could leave school at thirteen, prior to that the age had been twelve, if the child reached a certain standard. A headmaster and two women teachers were employed, but in the middle of the century numbers dropped to a headmistress and eleven pupils, before the school eventually closed.
Parson Newton, who normally went about in a far from clerical looking outfit, used to come from Old Cleeve on Sunday afternoons, riding in a kind of farm cart, seated on a bale of straw. This was the cart he used for collecting his tithes. It was said that he practised necromancy, and many people at that time believed in witchcraft, and the powers of a parson in connection with the occult. Some say that it was Parson Newton who, by 'conjuring', discovered the man who was guilty of stealing the Roadwater Club Chest.
In more recent times Mr Walter Williams played the organ for over fifty years, for which he received an appreciation from the Archbishop of Canterbury. Others who have given devoted service over many years include Miss Laugher, who used to live in the old Stationmaster's House at Comberow, and who worked the Kneeler for the Altar rail and many other matching tapestries. Horace and Joan Burnett, who held the positions of Treasurer and Secretary for more than thirty years. Hetty Routley and followed by her daughter Joan, who kept the church spotlessly clean for many years.
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