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For
earlier names of Lea, Bruce
Coplestone-Crow
(1989) records Lecce in Domesday, Leche
in the Herefordshire Domesday (1160-70) and Lacu in 1201.
He considers that Lea is simple the Old English
lēah – ‘clearing’
although it is also considered that lēah
might mean the presence of woodland nearby
rather than a clearing in the middle of wooded
country (Smith,
1956, pp18-22).
Not
everyone has agreed with this meaning of Lea.
Brian
Cave, writing in 1982, uses a more common
derivation – that Lea is derived ultimately
from the Old English lacu – ‘stream’
or ‘water-course’. It would
then be similar to Leake in Lincolnshire, which
had the name Leche in Domesday (Ekwall,
1960).
However, Lea was, until 1844, in two parts –
in addition to the Herefordshire part there was
also a Gloucestershire part. In Domesday
the Herefordshire portion of Lea, in Bromsash
Hundred, was a manor of St Peter’s
abbey at Gloucester – a gift of Walter de
Lacy (Thorn and Thorn, 1982) while the Gloucestershire
portion, Lega in Letberge Hundred, was,
a possession of the bishop of Coutance (Duncumb,
1812). In the time of Edward the Confessor
the Gloucestershire Lea had been held by Algar
while the Herefordshire one was held by Ansgot.
Like
many of the Norman-French immigrant nobility,
the de Lacys were benefactors
of the church. Walter de Lacy built St Peter’s
church in Hereford and in 1085 died inspecting
it during construction work. His son Roger
inherited his lands and is recorded as holding
them in Domesday. Another son, Peter, became
Abbot of Gloucester.
The
two manors of Lea were united in 1592 when the
sixth Earl of Shrewsbury, who had the Herefordshire
manor, died. The proprietor of the Gloucestershire
manor, Richard Hameline, then purchased the other
part (Duncumb,
1812, p401).
When
the Ross to Gloucester Road was turnpiked in 1726
one of its toll-gates was at Lea where a riot
against it occurred in 1731 (Cave,
1982, p12).
Archaeological
records from Lea are held by Historic
Herefordshire On Line |
