House was rebuilt. The main road became a turnpike in 1707 and a cottage used as a toll house survives. Lexden Heath was a large area of common land used for grazing, horse races and military camps; it was inclosed by Act of Parliament in 1821. This enlarged the estate of the lord of the manor, the Reverend John Rawstorn Papillon, who was an acquaintance of Jane Austen and whose niece married Jane's brother Henry. Straight Road was created at this time to make a way across the new inclosures to the hamlet of Shrub End, which became a separate parish in 1845. The small and decrepit medieval church of St Leonard was demolished in 1820 and a new church was built slightly to the south, designed in the Early English style by M. G. Thompson. A larger chancel was added in 1892. A Methodist chapel was built in Straight Road in 1859 and a mission hall (now Lexden Evangelical Church) in 1885. A National Day and Sunday School was built in Spring Lane in 1817 and enlarged several times until replaced by Lexden Council School (now Lexden Primary) in 1925. Lexden Park House became the Endsleigh private school in 1955 and then the Endsleigh Annex of the Colchester Institute until 1990. The house itself was converted to apartments and the gardens became a local nature reserve. The Avenue of Remembrance was built in 1929 to relieve traffic on the London Road and as a memorial to the fallen of Colchester in World War I. Charles Henry Harrod, a businessman involved in retail trade who founded the highly successful Harrods store in London, was born in Lexden. Education In Lexden, there is one private school, Holmwood House School, which was founded in 1922 and has around three hundred pupils from reception to year eight. St Teresa's Catholic Primary School is an academy school with around two hundred and twenty pupils from reception to year six. Lexden Primary School and Home Farm Primary School are state schools for all children from nursery to year six, Lexden also having a special unit for the hearing impaired. There is also a school for children with special needs, Lexden Springs School. Providing secondary education, the Colchester Royal Grammar School, Colchester County High School for Girls, Philip Morant School and College and St Mary's School, Colchester are nearby. Sports and recreation Lexden has a King