Church Of St Peter And St Leonard

Church of St Peter and St Leonard

This church on the north side of Church Street in Horbury is a significant Classical building built between 1791 and 1793 by the architect John Carr at his own expense, costing £8,000. The vestry was added in 1884, and the rotunda and spire were rebuilt in 1899. A First World War commemorative south chapel was added in 1920.

The building is constructed in ashlar with a grey slate roof. Its plan comprises a west tower, a five-bay nave with octagonal ends, three-bay north and south transept-like wings, a vestry to the north-east and a chapel to the south-east.

The most striking external feature is the square tower, which rises in four reducing stages. The first stage is of smooth ashlar with round-arched and square windows. The second is rusticated and carries a central clock. The third has round-arched bell-chamber openings with paired pilasters, and the fourth is similar but has recessed-angle columns. The tower is surmounted by a colonnaded rotunda with a fluted, conical spire.

The nave features tall, round-arched windows. The south wing is treated as a giant portico with four Ionic columns supporting a dentilled pediment. The central entrance comprises an eight-panel double door with pediment, and there are round-arched ground-floor windows with square windows at high level. The pediment and frieze carry an inscription in Latin: "He constructed this sacred edifice as a monument of piety towards God and love for his native land at his own expense, John Carr architect in the year of Christ 1791. Glory to God in the highest."

The north wing is relatively plain, featuring a central entrance with architrave and pediment. The vestry entrance has a round-arched opening with a six-panel door flanked by tapering pilasters supporting a frieze and cornice. Above this is a pedimented tablet with scrolled supports, inscribed to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Reverend John Sharp's institution to the cure of the parish in 1884.

The interior is organised by giant fluted Corinthian pilasters marking the bay divisions, with columns supporting the transepts. Tuscan columns carry a west gallery with a wooden panelled front, which houses the organ. The shallow-vaulted ceiling features an elaborate frieze, is panelled and terminates in shallow segmental coving over segmental-apse ends at either end. All door and window openings are elaborately treated.

An octagonal panelled pulpit with tester, dated 1917, was erected in memory of Richard and Martha Ann Popplewell (died 1904 and 1914) by their children. The communion rail is of green and brown marble. The pews are straight-backed with rounded ends and feature panelling, with a panelled dado running around the walls.

Several marble tablets commemorate notable individuals. A white marble tablet in the north transept depicts Harriet Elizabeth Carr (died 12 March 1841) as an allegorical kneeling woman by an urn, signed by T. Tilney of York. A marble tablet on the north wall at the east end commemorates Robert Carr, Architect (died 3 December 1760) and Rosa Carr (died 1774). Another marble tablet on the south wall at the east end records the death of John Carr, the architect, on 7 March 1807. The stained glass dates mainly from after the First World War.

The church stands on the site of a Norman church dating from around 1100, and possibly a Saxon church before that. It remains an important and prominent landmark in the area.