Towns, Cities, Villages and Hamlets

Samuel Lewis's Topographical
Gazeetter 1831

LEVERINGT0N, a parish in the hundred of WISBEACH, Isle of ELY, county of CAMBRIDGE, 2 miles (N. W.) from Wisbeach, containing, with the chapelry of Parson-Drove, 1523 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, in the peculiar jurisdiction and patronage of the Bishop of Ely, rated in the king’s books at £25. 0. 7½. The church is dedicated to St. Leonard and St. John the Baptist. There is a school for teaching poor children, endowed with £20 per annum, paid out of the produce of lands supposed to have belonged to the hospital of St. John the Baptist, which existed here before the Reformation. At Fitton, in this parish, there was, in 1389, a chantry chapel, dedicated to St. Mary.

For the Family Historian details available records can be found on the Leverington page of GENUKI Cambridgeshire.

Domesday Book Entry

Leverington is not mentioned in the Domesday Book but some of the entries for Wisbech may cover this area.

War Memorial

The war memorial and the men on it have been documented on the Roll-of-Honour Cambridgeshire page

LEVERINGTON is a parish and village, in the Isle of Ely and on the Norfolk border of the county, 1 mile north west of the Midland and Great Northern joint railway station at Wisbech and 2 miles north-west from Wisbech station on the London and North Eastern railway, in the Wisbech hundred, union, petty sessional division and county court district, rural deanery and archdeaconry of Wisbech and diocese of Ely. Leverington is now divided into three ecclesiastical parishes, viz: Leverington proper, Gorefield and Southea-cum-Murrow, which are given under separate headings.

The church of St. Leonard is an ancient edifice of Barnack stone, chiefly in the Early English and Perpendicular styles, consisting of chancel with aisle, clerestoried nave, aisles, south porch and an embattled western tower with spire containing a clock and 6 bells: the chancel retains its sedilia, and there are several monuments and an eagle lectern of oak the font is adorned with figures under canopies : in 1847 the lead was removed from the nave and a slate roof was substituted: the present chancel roof and the seating of the nave are of the same date: in 1877 a new roof was placed on the Swains chapel, an organ and new chancel stalls erected and the bells renovated, at a cost of about £900: the very remarkable south porch was restored in 1891 : in 1901 a new roof was placed on the north aisle and the spire rebuilt, at a cost of £1,300: the tower and bells were repaired in 1924, at a cost of £1,600: there are 400 sittings. A new churchyard was opened in 1916: in the centre is a memorial, erected in 1920, inscribed with the names of the men of this parish who fell in the Great War, 1914-18 the register dates from the year 1558.

The Primitive Methodist chapel here was erected in 1885.

The Ecclesiastical Commissioners are lords of the manor of Wisbech Barton, which extends into this parish. The soil is rich loam. The chief crops are potatoes, fruit, peas and oats. The area of the civil parish is 4,294 acres of land, 4 of water, 7 of tidal water and 6 of foreshore; the population of the civil parish in 1921 was 2,484, and of the ecclesiastical parish, 1,331.

PARSON DROVE, a chapelry in the civil parish, is given under a separate heading.

FITTON END, partly in this and partly in Newton parish, is 1 mile north of Leverington.

[Extracts from Kelly's Directory - Cambridgeshire - 1929]