Due largely to the significant reduction of the hop industry in the area, [citation needed]Leigh, like many local villages, declined in the late 20th century; it lost its pub, its police station and its railway station (with the closure of the Bromyard branch line in the 1960s).

Leigh's Norman church (St. Edburga's) was built in 1100 by Benedictine monks from Pershore Abbey.

Enclosures of common lands caused riots at Leigh in 1778, where anti-enclosure rioters attacked the physical enclosure: with their faces blackened and being otherwise disguised, and armed with guns and other offensive weapons; … in the most daring manner did cut down, burn, and entirely destroy all the posts, gates and rails.

This responsibility was transferred to Martley Poor Law Union.

[2] The area is reputedly haunted by the ghost of a robber named Edmund Colles, who is said to appear in a coach drawn by four fire-breathing horses.