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Leigh on Mendip

Leigh-on-Mendip
St Giles Leigh on Mendip.jpg
St Giles church
Leigh-on-Mendip is located in Somerset
Leigh-on-Mendip
Leigh-on-Mendip
Leigh-on-Mendip shown within Somerset
Population 514 (2011)
OS grid reference ST695475
District
Shire county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town RADSTOCK
Postcode district BA3 5
Dialling code 01373
Police Avon and Somerset
Fire Devon and Somerset
Ambulance South Western
EU Parliament South West England
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Somerset
51°13′35″N 2°26′15″W / 51.2263°N 2.4374°W / 51.2263; -2.4374Coordinates: 51°13′35″N 2°26′15″W / 51.2263°N 2.4374°W / 51.2263; -2.4374

Leigh-on-Mendip or Leigh upon Mendip (on Ordnance Survey maps) is a small village on the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England. It lies roughly equidistant from Frome, and Shepton Mallet at about 5 miles (8 km) from each town.

The village has several sporting clubs, including cricket, shortmat bowls and table tennis. There is a First School.

The name of this village is pronounced lye or lie by local residents rather than lee, and probably comes from the Old English meaning grove or glade.

The estate formed part of the manor and liberty of Mells and was held by Glastonbury Abbey from Saxontimes until the dissolution of the monasteries. It then passed to the Horner family. The parish was part of the hundred of Frome.

On 19 June 1643 the village was the site of a skirmish in the English Civil War, between Royalist regiment of Sir James Hamilton and the parliamentary forces under Major Francis Duett.

Some dwellings in Leigh on Mendip parish are close to the Halecombe limestone quarry. The quarry exhibits pale to dark grey well-bedded Carboniferous Limestone. There are abundant near-vertical fissures and joints in the limestone with varying amounts of calcite mineralization and tufa growth around groundwater seepages. Quarrying activity was initiated at the time of the Second World War. It is now owned by Anglo American.


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