Monument record 31/0 - Leighton Village, Deserted/Shrunken Medieval Village

<1> Ordnance Survey, 1870-1982, Ordnance Survey Archaeological Record Card, SJ27NE (Index). SCH2487.

Possible deserted/shrunken medieval village, first mentioned in Domesday Book, probably in vicinity of Leighton Hall.

<2> Longley D, 1977-1978, Longley Archive, Site No.655, Site Visit Record Form, 22/05/1978 (Paper Archive). SCH2005.

Land Use - Permenant pasture with some crop-growing in adjacent fields.
Description - Field is called 'The Park', which used to extend south-west as far as the Dee Estuary at Parkgate. There are at least two sunken ways running approximately south-west/north-east, plus a dried-up stream course between them, and numerous ridge and furrow traces. Land slopes gently through the fields to the estuary. Site has obvious interest, but there is no apparent danger to it from land use.

<3> Longley D, 1977-1978, Longley Archive, Site No.655, Record Card (Paper Archive). SCH2005.

Field permanent pasture. Possibly site represents the manor of Leighton, mentioned in Domesday.

<4> Morgan P (ed), 1978, Domesday Book - Cheshire, 3.3 (Book). SCH1061.

Translation: LEIGHTON. William holds from him. Leofnoth held it: he was a free man. 1 hide paying tax. Land for 2 ploughs. In lordship 1 plough, with 1 slave; 1 Frenchman and 2 smallholders. 2 fisheries. The value was and is 15s.

<5> Husain, BMC, 1973, Cheshire Under the Norman Earls, p.61-2 (Book). SCH3881.

<6> Various, Written Communication to the HER, Place GW 07/01/1978 (Written Communication). SCH3756.

The river end of Leighton has become part of Parkgate; its Chester High Road end is linked to Heswall. Leighton Hall Farm and Leighton House and barns are the only remains of Leighton as a distinct settlement. Founded on clay rather than sandstone, unusual for this area which is predominantly sandstone, this may have been done to facilitate the construction of fishponds. The Domesday Book records two fisheries at Leighton. These fisheries are thought to be fish yards or flood yards. The fisheries are mentioned again in C13th, C15th and C16th. The settlement may never have been more than a group of farmhouses. In 1672 the heiress of Leighton, Bridget Savage married Sir Thomas Mostyn, and from that time there was no longer any resident landlord at Leighton Hall. This may have created the impetus for the community to disintegrate. A map of 1732 shows a few houses, now gone, on Boathouse lane near its junction with the road to Neston. Apart from the fisheries, the other known resource of the settlement was Leighton Wood. The wood originally stretched from the boundary with Great Neston, to or almost to the boundary with Gayton.

<7> Various, Written Communication to the HER, Hoey P 07/04/1999 (Written Communication). SCH3756.

It is possible that the site of the medieval manor of Leighton lies beneath the site of the later nineteenth century hall (now demolished) in arable fields to the east of the existing farm buildings. Alternatively, it may lie beneath the Great Barn (see CHER 31/1), with the sandstone plinth being reused for the barn, but formerly the support for a timber framed building; this could explain why the current bricks of the barn, although old, are not 'ancient'. The window frames of the barn appear older than the brickwork and could have been re-used from the earlier manor house.