Church Of St Leonard

The Church of St Leonard is a former chapel to Kirkstead Abbey, now a parish church, originally dating from approximately 1230-60, with restoration work carried out in 1913-14 by Weir. The church is constructed of limestone ashlar and squared coursed rubble, with a weatherboarded gable and a plain tiled roof, topped by a timber bellcote with a shaped leaded roof. The building has a single-cell plan.

The west end features large corner buttresses, a chamfered string course, and a central pointed planked double doorway with 13th-century scrolled iron hinges. The doorway consists of three orders with shafts bearing stiff leaf capitals, a moulded outer arch with dogtooth moulding, and a pointed door head. It has a hood mould with foliate stops. Above the doorway is a blind arcade of three bays with shafts and dogtooth moulded pointed arches; the central arch contains a vesica. The side walls are buttressed, with plain moulded corbels and a cill band. The north side has five tall lancet windows with hood moulds, and a blocked doorway. The east end has three stepped lancets. The south wall mirrors the north side, with six lancets.

Inside, there are two cells of ribbed quadripartite vaulting, with shafts rising from annular corbels featuring stiff leaf foliage. These shafts spring from a keeled string course that runs around the interior. Ribs meet in floriate bosses, and the cross ribs have dogtoothing. The chancel contains a sexpartite vault with a dogtoothed mid rib and a boss depicting the Agnus Dei. A triangular headed aumbry is set into the south wall. The rear arches of the windows have keeled shafts to the reveals, and early plaster, gauged to resemble ashlar, is visible in one section of the nave. A small planked door with a chamfered surround and lintel is located in the west end.

The church contains an early 13th-century wooden screen arcade, reset in 1926 on a new base, featuring trefoil arches on slender octagonal piers and facetted capitals. The font is a re-used medieval mortar with side lugs, set on a cylindrical stone base. A monument in the chancel displays the upper portion of a 13th-century recumbent effigy of a knight, showing him in chain mail, surcoat, and shield, wearing a helm. A small portion of his head rests on a cushion with sprays of stiff leaf foliage on either side. This is an intact building of outstanding quality.