Great Leighs, United Kingdom

The village has two public houses: the Castle Inn and the Dog and Partridge, both on Main Road. The Castle, formerly called the St Anne's Castle, has a long history. The current building dates from the early 19th century, but it was built on the site of a medieval hermitage known as St Anne's which served as a resting place for pilgrims on their way to and from the tomb of Thomas Becket at Canterbury. The old hermitage continued to serve as a hostelry after the pilgrimages ceased at the Reformation.

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 War, Andrew Clark, kept a voluminous diary of the war detailing activities, opinions and rumours in the village and nearby. An edited version of the diary was published in 1985 under the title Echoes of the Great War.

In the 2014 BBC series Britain's Great War, Jeremy Paxman visited St Mary's Church, Great Leighs, and he described the early loss of Captain Alan Tritton and brothers Privates Richard (Dick) and Arthur Fitch. He spoke with their niece, Valerie Frost.

There is a spring by the side of the road at Cole Hill on Boreham Road, near Great Leighs Church. It once had a lion's head over the outlet.

On 1 April 1949, the parish was merged with neighbouring Little Leighs to form a new civil parish called "Great and Little Leighs", subject to a minor adjustment to the boundary with Little Waltham at the same time. At the 1931 census (the last before the abolition of the civil parish), Great Leighs had a population of 728.

Gate Farmhouse on Moulsham Hall Lane is a Grade II Listed Georgian property and the home of journalist Simon Heffer. It was built between 1820 and 1850.