Leece

Coordinates: 54°06′50″N 3°09′32″W / 54.114°N 3.159°W / 54.114; -3.159

Leece is a village on the Furness peninsula in Cumbria, England, between the towns of Ulverston and Barrow-in-Furness.

Amenities

The village is built around a tarn and a village green, and Henry Armer & Son, a smithy established in 1914 that has since become an agricultural engineering business.

History

Historically part of Lancashire, 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. It appears later in 1269 as Lees.

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. St. Matthew's Church, in the hamlet of Dendron, built in 1642, also served the village, as both a church and a school. It was funded by Robert Dickinson, a citizen of London, who had formerly lived in Leece.