Great Leighs the nearby Leez Priory, and Great Leigh's church. At The Castle, various references can be read on the walls that tell more of the history. Local folklore also tells that the inn is haunted by the troubled spirit of a witch burned at the stake and buried beneath a stone at the nearby crossroads. In December 2009, a £730,000 project to renovate the Village Hall was completed. It was aided by money associated with a new housing development within the village, extensive fund raising and help from funding bodies and Essex County Council. The incumbent priest during the First World
Fair Grounds Race Course Race Course. In 2009, the Horseplayers Association of North America introduced a rating system for 65 Thoroughbred racetracks in North America. Of the top Fifteen, New Orleans Fair Grounds was ranked #12, behind Evangeline Downs in Opelousas, Louisiana, which was ranked #6. As early as 1839 Bernard de Marigny, Julius C Branch and Henry Augustine Tayloe (son of John Tayloe III of The Octagon House, national leader on turf at the time, founder of the Washington Jockey Club (1798), who imported the great English thoroughbred Diomed that sired Sir Archy-whose progeny include Lexington, Secretariat and American Pharoah; the grandson of