Leigh-on-Sea

Archaeological finds of pottery and coins from Romano-British era in the locality suggest early settlement.[4] From at least the Saxon period a hilltop clearing amidst the woodland that covered much of the surrounding area (the Rochford Hundred) of Essex came to be known as Leigh (alternatively given as 'Ley', 'Lee' or 'Lea' on old maps).[5]

A place of minor economic importance at the time of the Norman Conquest, a reference to Leigh (Legra) appears in the Domesday Book survey of 1086. Ley is a place-name element found also in the nearby towns and villages of Hadleigh, Rayleigh, Hockley, and Thundersley.

From the late Middle Ages onwards, Leigh evolved from a rustic backwater through eras of increased and diminished maritime trade to form, by the early 20th century, the westernmost suburb of the borough of Southend-on-Sea.

Beyond the fishing and trading settlement on the shore of the Thames Estuary, a number of farms including Leigh Heath Farm, Leigh Park Farm, Chapmans, Belfairs Farm, Gowles/Gowlds, Picketts, Owls Hall Farm, Wood Farm, (Adams/Allens) Elm Farm, Plastow and Leigh Hall Farm existed.

St Clement's Church was rebuilt in the late 15th century or early 16th century, although the list of rectors dates back 1248. The fabric of the church is of Kentish ragstone and flint rubble, with a Tudor porch constructed of red brick. The mediaeval structure of the church was added to and altered during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The chancel was extended at the east end in 1872 by C. F. Haywood; Ernest Geldart added the south aisle in 1897, and there were a number of alterations made by Sir Charles Nicholson in 1913 and 1919. The tower at the west end was a prominent landmark for shipping on the Thames Estuary, and the building contains a good selection of stained glass dating from between the 18th and 20th centuries. The building is Grade II* listed by Historic England, and a key factor for this rating was the sympathetic nature of the 19th and 20th century additions.[6]

Leigh Hall, a medieval manor house demolished in the early 20th century, was once situated near the ancient eastern manorial boundary of Leigh and Prittlewell. The house and a trackway leading from it to a church on a nearby clifftop pre-dated the centre of modern-day Leigh-on-Sea and its primary commercial thoroughfare Broadway (formally known as Hall Road).

The Rt. Rev. Robert Eden, who became Rector of Leigh in 1837, demolished the previous Rectory and commissioned a large new one, which was completed in 1838. One quarter of the building remains today as Leigh Library, as the other wings of the building were demolished by Southend Corporation when they acquired the building and the surrounding land. The Rectory and grounds occupied a 6-acre (2.4 ha) site, and the work carried out by Eden included the construction of Rectory Grove as a public right of way, which replaced an existing cliff-top path called Chess Lane,[7] and a second trackway between Elm Road and the springs situated near the top of Billet Lane.

In the 11th century Leigh was a marginal community of homesteads. The Domesday Book records 'five smallholders above the water who do not hold land',[8] who were probably engaged in fishing thus giving Leigh a claim to nearly a thousand years of activity in the fishing industry.[9]

The main seafood catch from Leigh fishing boats has always been shellfish and whitebait. Many of the local trawlers were at one time bawleys, and two of Old Leigh's pubs – the Peter Boat and Ye Olde Smack – owe their names to types of local fishing boat. Local fish merchants land, process and trade a wide range of supplies daily, including shrimps, lobster, crab, seabass, haddock, cod and mackerel, cockles, whelks, mussels and oysters.

The riverside settlement of 'Old Leigh', or 'The Old Town', is historically significant; it was once on the primary shipping route to London. From the Middle Ages until the turn of the 20th century, Old Leigh hosted the settlement's market square, and high street (known as Leigh Strand). Leigh had grown to become a prosperous port by the 16th century; ships as large as 340 tons were built here for fishing and other purposes. Elizabethan historian William Camden (1551-1623) described Leigh as "a proper fine little towne and verie full of stout and adventurous sailers".[10] By the 1740s however, Leigh's deep water access had become silted up (as attested to by John Wesley) and the village was in decline as an anchorage and port of call.[11]

With the advent of the railway line from London to Southend during the mid-19th century, much of the "old town" was demolished to accommodate its passage, and new housing and streets began to be built on the ridge of hills above the settlement.

Broadway developed between the 1870s and the 1920s from a residential street to a commercial parade of shopfronts, as the town began to expand. During the 1920s, Broadway was extended further west with the demolition of a large manor house, Black House/Leigh House (built 1620). At this time also, London Road and Leigh Road were becoming established as commercial thoroughfares, with shops, workshops, industrial premises, and entertainment venues.

By the mid 20th century Leigh had grown to become part of a larger, urban conurbation, extending further north, east and north-west, and merging with the similar residential areas of Eastwood, Chalkwell, as well as Hadleigh, a neighbouring town now in the adjacent Borough of Castle Point. In 1983 Leigh gained its own paper, Leigh Times, and in 1996 gained its own Town Council.[12]

During the 1990s and the early 21st century Leigh-on-Sea went through more change: the growing dominance of out-of-town, 24-hour supermarkets and retail parks, as well as the arrival and popularity of retail online shopping, meant that much local business had to reinvent itself, either as venues for socialising, or to offer niche services and products to cater for the town's changing demographic. Bars, cafes and restaurants, boutiques, galleries and gift shops, amongst other traders, began to replace many of the traditional high street shops.

A foggy winter morning in Leigh-On-Sea

Significant urban regeneration has followed these changes and is continuing to attract new residents to the town, as well as helping to accommodate an increase in the Borough's local population.

In recent years Leigh-on-Sea has frequently been cited as one of the best places to live in the UK, owing to factors such as: its proximity to London, nearby outstanding Westcliff and Southend grammar schools, good access to sports and arts activities, multiple opportunities to develop skills, and a strong sense of belonging and community spirit.[13] A 2016 survey by Rightmove found that Leigh was the happiest place to live in the UK.[14]