Church Of St Leonard

TA 06 NW SKERNE MAIN STREET (south side, off)

6/89 Church of St Leonard

20/9/66 - I

Church. C12 nave and chancel, C15 west tower. C19 vestry and south porch. Ashlar, rendered to nave and chancel, flagstone dressings, graduated slate roofs. West tower, 3-bay nave with south porch, 2-bay chancel with north vestry. West tower of 2 stages with moulded plinth, diagonal buttresses, hollow-chamfered string-courses. 2-light pointed belfry openings with C19 tracery in Perpendicular style. Embattled parapet with corner obelisks. 3-light west window with C19 tracery in Perpendicular style under hood- mould. Nave: chamfered plinth and buttresses, 2-light square-headed windows with C19 tracery in Perpendicular- style and hood-moulds. Round-headed south door with continuous roll-moulding and beakhead. Raised coped gable. Chancel: chamfered plinth and diagonal buttresses. Low-side lancet to west, 2-light window with C19 tracery in Perpendicular style under 4-centred head with hood-mould to east. Priest's door with pointed head and continuous chamfer. 3-light east window with Curvilinear tracery under pointed head. Raised coped gable. Interior: C12 responds to C19 imposts and double- chamfered pointed tower arch. Round-headed blocked door in west wall of nave to north of tower arch, possibly leading to former external stair turret. Blocked early C13 north arcade and responds with quatrefoil piers and abaci (and additional shafts to west pier) and fillet to east respond supporting double-chamfered pointed arches. Blocked round rear-arch and partly blocked piscina to south wall. C12 chancel arch with attached shafts, cushion capitals with volutes and human masks, quirk and chamfer imposts extending as a string to north and south, and a round-headed arch of 3 orders towards the nave - 2 inner roll-moulded orders, one outer order enriched with chevrons and lozenges - and a single square order to the chancel. Squint to north of chancel arch. Chancel has blocked sedilium with shouldered triangular head to north wall. 3 effigies reset in blocked west arch of former north arcade: a knight with crossed legs and re-tooled head, a woman with a head-dress in a quatrefoil to the right, and a baby in swaddling-clothes between them. C19 octagonal font. Numerous pieces of beakhead have been reset in the walls, which also retain traces of black- letter inscriptions. It seems probable that the lower stage of the west tower encloses an earlier structure.

Listing NGR: TA0466155116