LALEHAM, in Domesday “Leleham,” is a small village and parish, on the bank of the Thames, which here divides the county from Surrey, 2 miles south from Staines station on the Windsor branch of the London and South Western railway, 2 north from Chertsey, 10 south from Uxbridge and 19 from London, in the Uxbridge division of the county, Spelthorne hundred and petty sessional division, Staines union and Chertsey county court district, rural deanery of Hampton, archdeaconry of Middlesex and diocese of London. There is a ferry here to Chertsey. The church of All Saints is an ancient edifice, chiefly of brick, and consisting of chancel, nave of three bays, north aisle extending to the extreme east end, south porch and a low and massive western tower of brick, with wide flat buttresses and a plain parapet and containing a clock, presented by the late James Halford esq.: 3 bells dated 1663 and an octave of tubular bells, presented by A. F. Govett esq. in 1888: the nave is Transitional, the arcade having massive circular columns: but the south aisle has been destroyed and the arcade built into the wall: the windows, in the Geometric Decorated style, were restored in 1889: in the church are inscriptions to the Rev. Dr. Downes, chaplain in ordinary to George III. d. 1798; to George Perrott, baron of the Exchequer, d. 1775, and to the Rev. Dr. Thomas Arnold, formerly headmaster of Rugby school, who resided here from 1819 to 1828: over the communion table is a painting of “Christ walking on the sea,” painted by Mr. George H. Harlow and presented in 1811 by Mr. George Hartwell, of this parish: the chancel aisle is the property of the Earl of Lucan: there are 250 sittings: in the churchyard, which contains some good yew trees, is interred Matthew Arnold M.A. poet and critic, eldest son of Dr. Arnold and born at Laleham in 1822: d. 15 April, 1888. The register dates from the year 1538. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £160, including 16 acres of glebe with residence, in the gift of the Earl of Lucan, and held since 1895 by the Rev. George Earle Stodart M.A. of St. Peter's College, Cambridge. Laleham House, once occupied by Maria, Queen of Portugal, is the seat of the Earl of Lucan, and has attached grounds of about 23 acres. The principal landowners are the Earl of Lucan and Harden Honnor esq. The soil is light; subsoil, gravel. The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats, turnips and mangold wurtzel. The area is 1,270 acres of land and 31 of water; rateable value, £4,245; the population in 1891 was 504.

National School (mixed), erected with residence for master, in 1864, by the Earl of Lucan, for no children; average attendance, 68.