| Leece | |
Moss House |
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Leece
Leece shown within Cumbria |
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| Parish | Aldingham |
|---|---|
| District | South Lakeland |
| Shire county | Cumbria |
| Region | North West |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | ULVERSTON |
| Postcode district | LA12 |
| Dialling code | 01229 |
| Police | Cumbria |
| Fire | Cumbria |
| Ambulance | North West |
| EU Parliament | North West England |
| UK Parliament | Barrow and Furness |
| List of places: UK • England • Cumbria | |
Leece is a village on the Furness peninsula of South Lakeland in Cumbria, England, situated between the towns of Ulverston and Barrow-in-Furness.[1] It is primarily agricultural and features a few services.
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The village[1][2] is built around a tarn and a village green,[2] and is home to a Bed and Breakfast,[3] The Copper Dog pub[4] and Henry Armer & Son, a smithy established in 1914 that has since become an agricultural engineering business.[5]
The name Leece is probably from the Old English leah, which means 'woodland clearing', and the plural of which is Leas. It was recorded in the Domesday Book as Lies, in the Manor of Hougun held by Earl Tostig.[6] It appears later in 1269 as Lees.[7]
Leece used to contain the United Methodist Free Church. It was founded in 1881, but closed in 1912. The building, which was taken down in the late 1920s, can still be seen on some photographs from the period. The church did not have a cemetery.[8] St. Matthews Church, in the hamlet of Dendron, built in 1642, also served the village, as both a church and a school. It was funded for by Robert Dickinson, a citizen of London, who had formally lived in Leece.[9]
In the 1990s and 2000s, Leece played a part in the Lady in the Lake murder trial. Gordon Park, a resident of Leece, bludgeoned his 30-year-old wife Carol to death with an ice axe, then dumped her body in Coniston Water, telling police investigating her disappearance that she had left their home for another man.[10]