Church Of St Leonard

The Church of St Leonard is a parish church dating back to the early 14th century, with significant restoration and extension in 1864 by Sir George Gilbert Scott. It’s constructed from coursed rubble with ashlar dressings and tile roofs. The church originally comprised a nave and south porch, to which a 19th-century north aisle and chancel were added.

The south wall of the nave has four bays, defined by stepped buttresses with angle buttresses to the corners. Restored windows of two trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil in the head, and a two-centred arch, are visible in the two eastern bays. The bay to the west of the centre contains a mostly rebuilt 19th-century south porch, featuring 14th-century windows with one ogee trefoil light in each side wall. The south door has double chamfered jambs and a two-centred arch. The westernmost bay is blind. The west window incorporates three pointed lights under a two-centred head. The north aisle, a 19th-century addition, features a reset 14th-century window in the west wall, and four further windows, each with three cinquefoiled lights under a square head. The chancel was entirely rebuilt in the 19th century, featuring two bays with diagonal corner buttresses. The south wall has a blocked window to the west, masked by an organ, and an eastern window of two trefoiled lights with tracery beneath a two-centred arch. A gabled porch with a segmental pointed arch and cinquefoil cusped head sits above the priests’ door between the windows. Two similar windows are set into the north wall. The east window is of three trefoiled lights with tracery under a two-centred arch.

Inside, the north arcade is of 19th-century design, comprising four bays with two-centred arches of two sunk-chamfered orders. The piers are supported by four clustered columns with moulded capitals and bases. A 14th-century chancel arch, two-centred and of two chamfered orders, remains, its responds having a moulded capital and base, and a restored label with head stops. A piscina in the south wall of the nave has a trefoiled head and a broken round drain. A piscina reset in the south wall of the chancel has a moulded trefoil head and a moulded gable. The nave roof features 15th-century crown post trusses, with common rafter couples having collars and scissor braces. The chancel roof is a 19th-century design with arch-braced collar trusses featuring pierced tracery in the spandrels, and wind braces forming quatrefoils. The font is likely from the 13th century, possessing an octagonal bowl with segmental moulded arches in the splayed lower part, mounted on a 19th-century stem and base.