History of Rayleigh

Rayleigh, the Village 1951
Reproduced courtesy of The Francis Frith Collection.

White's Directory of Essex 1848

RAYLEIGH, a small ancient town, which formerly had a market, is pleasantly situated on the London and Rochford road >>more.

White's Directory of Essex 1848 - list of inhabitants.

Rayleigh Snippets

When researching for this website we often find a little snippet of information on a location or subject which may be of interest. Here's one for Rayleigh.

More local history sources

Books featuring Rayleigh from Abebooks. Just click the logo. The search terms are already formatted for Rayleigh.

Search for Rayleigh census returns at ancestry.co.uk.

1841 England Census | 1851 England Census | 1861 England Census
1871 England Census | 1881 England Census | 1891 England Census
1901 England Census

High Street, Rayleigh
Reproduced courtesy of Footsteps.
Quality reproductions of old photographs.

The Essex Record Office: an excellent starting point for research. The ERO has an online catalogue by the name of SEAX and a database of Parish Records held in the ERO. Access to both via their home page.

Council web site with a brief history of Rayleigh.

Brief archeological history of Rayleigh on the Essex County Council's Unlocking Essex.

1881 Ordnance Survey Map from the British History Online web site (Essex: 069, Ordnance Survey 1:10,560: Epoch 1.0).

Ordnance Survey - type the place name in the gazetteer search box to view detailed map of Rayleigh.

Images of England web site which has a photographic record of England's listed buildings - from the grandest house to the humblest cottage. Enter the town or village in the search box. Photographs are accompanied by a detailed architectural description of the property.