Church Of St Leonard

Church of St Leonard

This is a church originating in the 15th century, with 17th-century additions and major restoration work undertaken in 1848 and 1929. The chancel was substantially rebuilt during these campaigns.

The building is constructed largely of massive sandstone blocks, except the chancel which uses coursed squared sandstone. Gritstone provides the dressings throughout. The nave and nave aisles are roofed in copper, while the chancel has a 20th-century concrete tile roof. The embattled parapets of the nave, aisles and tower feature ridgeback copings and crocketed pinnacles, with stone coped gables to the gables themselves. A shallow plinth runs around the building.

The plan comprises a western tower of three stages, a clerestoried nave, nave aisles, north vestry, south porch and chancel.

The western tower rises in three stages with stepped diagonal buttresses rising to parapet level. The west door is four-centred arched with continuous moulded architrave and moulded hood. Above it sits a pointed 3-light window with trefoil headed lights and transom, itself crowned by a moulded hood with carved stops. The second stage carries a clock face and stringcourse. Y-tracery louvred bell openings in four-centred arches face all sides. Embattled parapets carry corner and central pinnacles.

The north nave aisle has buttresses to its centre and west corner. A pointed arched doorcase with cavetto moulded architrave opens to the west. To the east are two 15th-century flat-headed 3-light windows with trefoil headed lights, pierced cusped spandrels and Tudor dripmoulds. Above these run three flat-headed 17th-century 3-light clerestory windows with semi-circular headed lights and incised spandrels, crowned by three crocketed pinnacles above the parapets.

The gabled north vestry to the east has a four-centred arched 19th-century doorcase, a 19th-century 2-light window similar to the clerestory windows, and a single light window beyond. A four-centred arched 19th-century east vestry window with panel tracery sits alongside a larger, more complex window in similar style. A continuous sill band runs beneath.

The south chancel wall contains a 15th-century cusped 3-light window matching those of the north aisle, with a 2-light window to the west featuring cusped ogee tracery. The south nave aisle has 3-light windows similar to the northern clerestory windows along its east wall and east of the south wall, with three similar examples in the clerestory above. To the west of the nave aisle stands another flat-headed cusped 3-light window as found in the north nave aisle. Stepped buttresses occupy the corner and spaces between windows.

The south porch has a stone slab roof and a four-centred arched door with a niche above it. The inner door is cavetto moulded. A flat-headed 2-light window to the west has trefoil headed lights and Tudor dripmould. The embattlements and crockets match those to the north.

Internally, three-bay 15th-century arcades carry octagonal columns with moulded capitals and double chamfered pointed arches. A similar tall tower arch spans the western opening. The chancel arch has a chamfered soffit supported by moulded corbels. To the north, a 17th-century 3-light window lights the east of the north aisle. The nave roof is a 19th-century king post design, while a scissor truss roof covers the chancel. A large segmental arch opens through to the north organ bay in the chancel. A pointed door to the vestry sits to the east beyond.

A substantial 15th-century wall tomb occupies the east of the chancel. It features a large crocketed ogee arch with cusping beneath, flanked by pinnacle pilasters. The alabaster base carries carved coats of arms. An alabaster plaque in the south wall of the chancel depicts two men and two women kneeling at prayer stools, all now decapitated. Two 18th-century wall memorials also occupy this wall.

A fine alabaster tomb in the north nave aisle commemorates the Revel family and dates to 1537. It is carved with two life-size figures on top. The sides display cusped panels with coats of arms separated by twisted moulding. A grand wall memorial to John Revell dates to 1706. Another memorial of classical inspiration, to James Laverack, dates to 1774.

The glazing is mostly 20th-century, though fragments of early glass survive in the clerestory windows. A 15th-century octagonal font carved with decoration in quatrefoils to each side completes the interior.