Leyland is a town in the South Ribble district, in the county of Lancashire, England. It is approximately six miles (10 km) south of the city of Preston. The population of the town was estimated as 35,600 at the 2011 Census.
Throughout the 20th and 21st century, the community has seen a large growth in industry, population and farming, due to the establishment of Leyland Motors, housing developments and the surrounding usable arable land.
The name of the town is of old Anglo-Saxon origin, meaning "untilled land".
English Leyland was an area of fields, with Roman roads passing through, from ancient Wigan to Walton-le-Dale.
It was left undisturbed for many centuries until rediscovered shortly after the Battle of Hastings (1066). Leyland is mentioned in the Domesday Book (1085). In 1066 King Edward the Confessor presided over the whole of Leyland. The manor was divided into three large ploughlands, which were controlled by local noblemen. In the 12th century, it came under the barony of Penwortham.
The area of Worden, which is now Worden Park, was one of nine oxgangs of land granted to the Knights Hospitaller, by Roger de Lacy, in Lancashire, but the land was not assigned to any individual and a local man, who was a very close friend of de Lacy, Hugh Bussel, was assigned holder of the land in 1212.
Notable features that remain include the St Andrew's Parish Church, built around 1200 AD and the large stone Leyland Cross, thought to date back to Saxon times.
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