LEIGHS (GREAT), a village and a parish in Chelmsford district, Essex. The village stands on the river Ter, 6¼ miles NE by N of Chelmsford r. station; and has a post office under Chelmsford. The parish contains also the hamlet of Chatley, and comprises 3,125 acres. Rated property, £3,353. Pop., 909. Houses, 189. The property is much subdivided. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £878.* Patron, Lincoln College, Oxford. The church is very ancient, in tolerable condition; and has a Norman door and window, and a round tower of stone and flint. There are an Independent chapel, a national school, a British school, and charities £30.

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