Settlement in the village's vicinity dates back to at least the
Bronze Age; an archaeological survey at a local gravel quarry found evidence of Bronze Age burial grounds and
Iron Age constructions.
Roman activity in the area is evidenced by a hoard of coins dating back to the reign of
Commodus found at the
Rushcliffe Halt railway station in the north of the village. The village was founded by
Anglo-Saxon settlers at some point during the sixth or seventh centuries and was given the name
Lecche, which meant wet or moist land, in reference to the meadows by the
Kingston Brook. It is around this time that the
Kingdom of Mercia underwent conversion from
paganism to Christianity and the first church is thought to have been built in the village; a wooden structure where
St Mary's Church stands today. Viking activity in the area began during the ninth century and the village was part of the territory ceded to the
Danes by
Alfred the Great, which later formed the
Danelaw. Numerous place names in the area thus have
Scandinavian origins. During the reign of
Edward the Confessor, the landholders in the village were Godric, possibly
Godric the Sheriff, and Siward, possibly the
Earl of Northumbria. Following the
Norman Conquest, ownership of the lands was transferred to
Roger de Busli and
Henry de Ferrers, both companions of
William the Conqueror during the invasion. The
Domesday Book of 1086 recorded thirty-eight individuals in the village, giving a total resident population of around two hundred, as only heads of households were recorded. The
Treaty of Leake, an agreement of peace between
King Edward II and his cousin
Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, was signed in the village in 1318. A skirmish took place in the village in September 1644 during the
English Civil War between garrisons of
Cavaliers from
Ashby-de-la-Zouch and
Roundheads from
Leicester. The Royalists of Ashby were defeated and lost eight men killed and sixty captured. Distiller and philanthropist John Bley (1674–1731) was born in East Leake and used the profits from his London-based business to fund the construction of a school in the village, which stood on the site of the modern Brookside Primary School. Upon his death, Bley left money to every resident of the village and was buried on the grounds of St Mary's Church, where his tomb still stands. Commercial and industrial activity grew in the village during the nineteenth century, with
basket weaving and
lace-making providing income for residents.
Gypsum mining had been taking place in the area since
mediaeval times, and production of
plaster began in the village in the 1880s. East Leake later became the headquarters of
British Gypsum, ==Demographics==