Leake

The Library at Boston will prove useful in your research.

Jeff TOMLINSON has a photograph of the Lych Gate for St. Mary's Church, Old Leake, on Geo-graph, taken in August, 2003.

• The parish was in the Benington sub-district of the Boston Registration District.
   
• Check our Census Resource page for county-wide resources.
   
• The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:

• In ancient times there were two monastic institutions here. The first was the Moultry (or Multon) Chantry. The other was St. Lawerence's Chantry, now called Moat House.
   
• The Moultry Chantry was built in 1300 and rebuilt in 1815.
   
• Moat House Chantry was rebuilt in 1835. There was a legend that a tunnel ran from this Chantry to the parish church, but no such passageway has ever been found.
   
• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to St. Mary.
   
• The church is thought to be of Norman origin. The tower is dated between 1490 and 1547. The tower was being rebuilt in 1589, but wasn't finished until 1647.
   
• The church Nave roof was restored in 1863.
   
• The church seats 573.
   
• Renee REDSHAW provides us with Jenny Birmingham's perspective of Saint Mary's Church.
   
• Christ Church, in Leake Commonside, is a chapel of ease to St. Mary's. It was built in 1875 and seats 250.
   
• Here is a photo of St. Mary church, taken by (and copyright of) Norma CLARE.
   

• The Anglican parish register dates from 1575.
   
• The LFHS has published several indexes for the Holland East Deanery to make your search easier.
   
• The parish included a Wesleyan Methodist chapel built in the Fens and another at Fellands, erected in 1815. The Primitive Methodists had a chapel here, too. The United Methodists built their chapel in 1868 at Seadykes. Check our Non-Conformist Church Records page for additional resources.
   
• Check our Church Records page for county-wide resources.

• The parish was in the Benington sub-district of the Boston Registration District.
   
• Check our Civil Registration page for sources and background on Civil Registration which began in July, 1837.

Leake is a village and a parish 115 miles north of London, 8 miles north-east of Boston and about 3 miles due east of Sibsey in the Fen region. Technically, the parish is known as "Old Leake". There is a hamlet called "New Leake" in Eastville parish, further north. In 1872, the parish included 7,193 acres of land. It now covers about 9,400 acres.

In addition to the village of Old Leake, there is "Leake Commonside" just to the north of Old Leake. Leake Commonside was a separate parish for a while. If you are planning a visit:

• Take the A52 north out of Boston. The parish is just past Leverton.
   
• The "Hobhole Drain" passes through the parish.
   
• If you see these signs, you've gone too far! Neil THEASBY has a photograph of some signs on the A52 on Geo-graph, taken in September, 2020.
   
• See our Touring page for additional resources.

• Geograph
• Flickr

• Ask for a calculation of the distance from Leake to another place.

• A lighthouse once stood in the parish.
   
• An excellent published source is: "Old Leake, 12th Century to the Millennium," by Freda ROYLE, 43 pages.
   
• Neil THEASBY has a photograph of The White Hart in Old Leake on Geo-graph, taken in September, 2020.

• Derby Hall is the former residence of the DERBY family. It is partly in Leverton parish.
   
• Hampton House was occupied by a Mr. WELSH in 1872.

• See our Maps page for additional resources.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference TF398498 (Lat/Lon: 53.02723, 0.083062), Leake which are provided by:

• OpenStreetMap
• Google Maps
• StreetMap (Current Ordnance Survey maps)
• Bing (was Multimap)
• Old Maps Online
• National Library of Scotland (Old Ordnance Survey maps)
• Vision of Britain (Click "Historical units & statistics" for administrative areas.)
• English Jurisdictions in 1851 (Unfortunately the LDS have removed the facility to enable us to specify a starting location, you will need to search yourself on their map.)
• Magic (Geographic information) (Click + on map if it doesn't show)
• GeoHack (Links to on-line maps and location specific services.)

• All places within the same township/parish shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby townships/parishes shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby places shown on an Openstreetmap map.

John EMERSON, who retains the copyright, provides these photographs of the war memorial at Old Leake:

 
Adrian S. PYE also has a photograph of the Wellington crash memorial at Old Leake on Geo-graph, taken in June, 2020.

John EMERSON provides this list of names from the war memorial: [2002]

WW1

• James Altoft
• William Baker
• Benjamin Barrows
• Edward Barrows
• George E Barrows
• George Belcher
• Richard Belcher
• Frank Bridges
• Alf Brighton
• Sidney R Cheavin
• Frank E Dausney
• John Dawson
• Percy W. Day
• Frederick J. Evison
• James F. Faulkner
• Benjamin Fountain
• James E. Fothergill
• John W. Gedney
• James F. Herring
• Robert C. Jefferay
• Edward B. Kettle
• Charles Leachman
• George Lealand
• Charles Leary
• John W. Leary
• Charles W. Leeley
• Fred Martin
• Albert Mumby
• John Myers
• Walter Myers
• Thomas W. Oliver
• Charles W. Panson
• Edward Rawden
• Frederick J. Richardson
• Percy E. Richardson
• Charles Smith
• Frank Stephenson
• James W. Storr
• Albert Suckley
• Walter Suckley
• Walter Thorpe
• John E. Turner
• Robert H. Turner
• Charles G. Vinter
• Stephen Vinter
• William Webb
• Thomas W. West
• John G. Wilson
• William York
• Robert York

WW2

• Stanley B. Martin
• Kenneth Tempest
• Henry Houghton
• John Henton
• Edward Bland

• The name Leake is either from the Latin Lacus, for "watery, marshy place". Or it may be from Old Scandinavian Laekr, for "(place at) the brook". In the 1086 Domesday Book, the village is given as Leche.
  [A. D. MILLS, "A Dictionary of English Place-Names," Oxford University Press, 1991].
   
• Bruce Campbell advises that the locals pronounce the name as "La..ake".

• The parish was in the ancient Skirbeck Wapentake in the parts of Holland.
   
• In 1894, by Local Government Board Order No. 31,809, Old Leake was constituted a Civil Parish from the ancient parish of Leake, the remainder being include in New Leake.
   
• Leake Commonside is now a separate civil parish, but the date of this event is unknown.
   
• For today's district governance, visit the local Boston Borough Council.

• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Kirton and Skirbeck petty session hearings.
   
• As a result of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, this parish became part of the Boston Poor Law Union.

The parish doubled its population between 1801 and 1841.

Year	Inhabitants
1801	911
1831	1,744
1841	1,859
1851	2,062
1871	1,952
1881	2,114
1891	1,962
1901	1,387
1911	1,340

Denny LOWE provides a transcript of the Will of Thornton WILLOWS (Snr.) of Leake.

• The Wesleyan Methodists built a school in the Fen allotment in 1848 and enlarged it in 1851 to hold up to 100 children.
   
• A Public Elementary School (mixed) was built in 1856 for up to 150 children.
   
• The Common Side School (mixed) was built (year unknown) for up to 150 children.
   
• A School Board was formed in July, 1881.
   
• A Board School was erected in New Leake in 1890 to hold up to 160 children.
   
• See our Schools page for more information on researching school records.