Church Of St Leonard

SD 52NE WALTON LE DALE CHURCH BROW

5/113 Church of St. Leonard 24.3.1950 GV II*

Church; late medieval tower and chancel (the latter restored 1864) the rest 1902-06 by John Pollard Seddon. Stone, slate roof. West tower, nave with deep double transepts, low chancel. Perpendicular style throughout. 4-stage tower has angle buttresses, west door with moulded arch and above this a 3 light arched window with perpendicular tracery and hoodmould, attached octagonal clockface on west side, arched 3-light belfry louvres with perpendicular tracery and hoodmoulds on all sides; dripmould and embattled parapet. Chancel has chamfered plinth, a 3-light arched east window with perpendicular tracery and hoodmould, a window on each side with 3 cusped lights under a depressed arch, and on the south side a priests door with moulded arch and hoodmould. Between these is the building of 1904-06: a nave of 2 bays with double transepts which are so deep as to give the interior effectively a north-south rather than east-west axis; externally these parts are of smoothly dressed stone, with buttresses, embattled parapet, and 3-light windows with perpendicular tracery. Internally, nave and transepts are lofty, with open roof structure, ashlar walls of Runcorn sandstone, arches without capitals; chancel arch rises to ridge of the chancel, exposing kingpost roof trusses, and the wall above has blank Perpendicular panelling. North wall of chancel has plaster panel with arms of Assheton family of Cuerdale Hall (q.v.) and Downham, dated 1634; south wall has similar but undated panel with De Hoghton arms, and various memorial tablets to the same family. History: parochial chapel of Blackburn until 1837, first built in C12, rebuilt 1798, with transepts added in 1816; nave and transepts demolished and rebuilt on similar lines 1902-06, at cost of £10,383 (c. £7,500 paid by Calvert family, millowners in Walton le Dale). (VCH Lancs; Pevsner; F. Coupe Walton le Dale, 1954; J.B. Selvey A Pictorial History of Walton le Dale Parish Church 1971)

Listing NGR: SD5614128121