St Peter's Church, Leckhampton (SE View)

The present church is believed to have been built on the site of an earlier Saxon building, and also retains some Norman workmanship. Its earliest record of a parish priest is 1162; however the main body of the church dates from the time of Sir John Gifford, who was Lord of the Manor, 1300-1330, including its tall, elegant tower.

The estate passed to the NORWOOD Family by marriage in 1486, and in 1797 to the TRYE family, then in the early 1900s by John HARGREAVES, grandson of the inventor of the Spinning Jenny. In the churchyard is a memorial to Edward WILSON (1872-1912), who accompanied SCOTT to the North Pole. He had been born in Cheltenham, and had lived at The Crippetts Farm, in the parish, in his youth. Inside the church is the poignant Evans Memorial - a reminder of a family who were casualties of the Indian Mutiny.

(Information provided by Rosemary Lockie)

References
Gloucestershire Federation of Women's Institutes - The Gloucestershire Village Book, 1987. ISBN 0-905392-87-6.