Church Of St Leonard

The Church of St Leonard is a late medieval church, largely re-built in the early 20th century. Originally a parochial chapel of Blackburn, the church’s origins lie in the 12th century. It was rebuilt in 1798, with transepts added in 1816, before the nave and transepts were demolished and re-built in 1902-06 by John Pollard Seddon. The church is constructed of stone with a slate roof.

The west tower is four-stage with angle buttresses. It features a west door with a moulded arch, above which is a three-light arched window with perpendicular tracery and a hoodmould. An octagonal clockface is attached to the west side, and arched three-light belfry louvres with perpendicular tracery and hoodmoulds face all sides. A dripmould and embattled parapet top the tower. The chancel has a chamfered plinth, a three-light arched east window with perpendicular tracery and a hoodmould, windows on each side with three cusped lights under depressed arches, and a priest's door with a moulded arch and hoodmould on the south side.

The nave, built in 1904-06, comprises two bays with double transepts, the depth of which creates an interior axis closer to north-south than east-west. The exterior of this section is of smoothly dressed stone, featuring buttresses, an embattled parapet, and three-light windows with perpendicular tracery. Internally, the nave and transepts are lofty with an open roof structure. The walls are of ashlar Runcorn sandstone, featuring arches without capitals. The chancel arch rises to the ridge of the chancel, revealing kingpost roof trusses, with blank perpendicular panelling above the wall. A plaster panel on the north wall of the chancel displays the arms of the Assheton family of Cuerdale Hall and Downham, dated 1634. A similar, undated panel on the south wall displays the arms of the De Hoghton family, along with various memorial tablets to the same family. The church was a parochial chapel of Blackburn until 1837 and was re-built at a cost of £10,383, with approximately £7,500 contributed by the Calvert family, millowners in Walton le Dale.