Church Of St Andrew

A parish church at Leasingham, constructed over several centuries from the late 12th to 15th centuries, with the chancel rebuilt in 1863. The building is constructed from coursed limestone rubble and ashlar with ashlar dressings, and is roofed in slate with ashlar coped gables topped by cross finials.

The church comprises a west tower, nave with south aisle and porch, chancel, and north vestry.

Tower

The tall three-stage tower is topped by a 14th-century broached spire with three sets of alternating lucarnes and an iron weathercock. The tower features a deeply moulded plinth, angle buttresses, a moulded first-stage band, and a finely carved arcaded eaves band.

On the south face is a chamfered lancet with pointed arch and single shafts with moulded bases and capitals, with triple moulded impost. The second stage is blank. The third stage has a pair of round-arched bell openings, each with two chamfered pointed lights with a mandala above, separated by an octagonal shaft with moulded bases and capitals. The bell openings feature unusual inverted V tracery in their lower sections.

The west face has a round-headed doorway with double plank doors in the first stage, with a deeply moulded double arch supported on pairs of shafts with waterleaf capitals and moulded bases. Above is a moulded band and a circular foiled window in a deeply moulded surround. The second stage has a small round-headed chamfered lancet. The third stage contains a pair of round-headed bell openings identical to those on the south face.

The north face is blank except for small lancets lighting the north-east corner stair. The third stage has a single round-headed bell opening with tracery matching the other bell openings. The east face also has a single identical round-headed bell opening.

Nave and Aisles

The north nave wall has a deeply moulded plinth and moulded parapet. From right to left it displays a large three-light panel-tracery window under a shallow pointed, moulded and chamfered arch with hood, below which is a small blocked pointed-arched doorway. Beyond a buttress is a narrower three-light panel-tracery window in a pointed moulded chamfered arch with hood. Further left, past another buttress, is a two-light geometric-tracery window in a pointed arch with hood, followed by another buttress.

The south aisle has a chamfered plinth, angle buttresses, and coped parapet. Its three-light east window features reticulatед-type tracery in a chamfered pointed arch with hood. The south wall displays a two-light cusped Y-tracery window to the east in a chamfered pointed arch with hood, and a three-light panel-tracery window in a deeply chamfered segment-headed surround with hood at the centre. To the west is an ornate gabled porch with deeply moulded plinth and crocketed gabled angle buttresses. The pointed outer arch is deeply moulded with keeled triple-shaft responds with moulded capitals and bases and a hood. Carved figures of angels flank either side. The inner doorway has a double-chamfered pointed arch with chamfered hood mould, moulded imposts, outer single shafts with moulded capitals and bases, and chamfered jambs. A 19th-century plank door and stone benches are present. The west wall of the south aisle has a single pointed lancet.

Chancel and Vestry

A lean-to vestry of 19th-century construction projects from the north of the chancel, featuring angle buttresses and a fleuron frieze at the parapet. Its north wall has a five-light triangular-headed window with cusped lights in a deeply chamfered surround. The east wall has a two-light panel-tracery window under a shallow arch with hood.

The chancel east wall has angle buttresses and a tall pointed three-light geometric-tracery window with hood. The chancel south wall has a chamfered plinth and an ornate corbel table. At its centre is a priest's doorway in a deeply moulded chamfered pointed arch with hood and a 19th-century plank door. To the right of the hood is a similar shorter window.

Interior

The interior features a three-bay south arcade with keeled quatrefoil-shaft piers and single-shaft responds, all with moulded capitals and bench bases. The arches are pointed with double chamfering, hoods, and head label stops. The tower arch is double-chamfered with a shallow pointed profile and irregular triple-shafted responds; above it is a former doorway with a scar of an earlier roof line visible.

The chancel arch is 19th-century with moulded capitals and bases. The nave and chancel are roofed with ornate 19th-century wooden roofs supported on carved ashlar corbels. The south aisle has a plain 18th-century roof. The aisle also contains a pointed-arched aumbry and cupboard, plus a four-centred moulded arched doorway to the original rood stair, now blocked with a carved fleuron band above. The nave north wall has a single blocked doorway with triangular head.

The chancel contains a 19th-century double-chamfered pointed vestry archway, 19th-century organ, 19th-century brass and wooden altar rail, a small ashlar reredos, 19th-century encaustic tiles, and 19th-century wooden choir stalls. The nave contains 19th-century wooden pews and an ashlar pulpit.

A fine 16th-century octagonal ashlar font with stem and eight carved figurative panels, reputedly copies of 13th-century originals, is present. A small 18th-century hatchment hangs in the tower. Two 19th-century stained glass windows are in the chancel.

Monuments

The nave north wall bears tablets to Sophia Blackburn (1792), Susanna Gunnis, and the Reverend Friskney Gunnis (1838). The south aisle wall has a tablet to John Shapleigh (1791).