Ardleigh is a village and civil parish in Essex, England. It is situated approximately 4 mi northeast from the centre of Colchester and 26 mi northeast from the county town of Chelmsford.

History

Ardleigh appears in Domesday Book of 1086, when it is described as a holding of Geoffrey de Mandeville. The area includes a number of smallholdings founded after the First World War by the Land Settlement Association. Though the Great Eastern Main Line passes close to the village, the railway station closed in November 1967.

Transport and geography

The closest railway station is Manningtree, 3 mi northeast. The village is on the A137 road, a route from Colchester to Ipswich, Suffolk. Ardleigh Reservoir is less than 1 mi to the southwest.

Governance and population

Ardleigh is in the district of Tendring and the parliamentary constituency of Harwich and North Essex. The village has its own Parish Council. It is part of the electoral ward called Ardleigh and Little Bromley, and includes the area known as Crockleford Heath. The population of this ward at the 2011 Census was 2,311, growing from a population of 2081 recorded in the 2001 census.