Parish Church Of St Edward The Confessor

Parish Church of St Edward the Confessor, Leek

A parish church of medieval origins, with parts of the fabric possibly dating to the late 13th century, but substantially rebuilt and modified in later periods. The church underwent two major 19th-century restorations: the first by Ewan Christian, and a major restoration and rebuilding of the chancel by George Gilbert Street in 1867.

The church is constructed of roughly coursed and squared rubble with leaded and banded slate roofs. It comprises a west tower, a nave with two short aisles and clerestory, and a chancel.

The west tower is largely Perpendicular in style, with a 14th-century west doorway. It is arranged in two stages with clasping buttresses and an embattled parapet with corbels and angle pinnacles. The lower stage is high and contains a Decorated west door, with a 2-light Decorated window recut in the 19th century above it. A clock is positioned on the south face. The upper stage has paired bell chamber lights and a lozenge frieze below the embattled parapet.

The south porch is dated 1670 and features a flat roof and embattled parapet. Its round-headed archway displays Mannerist decoration with heavy voussoirs. To the west of the south porch are windows on two storeys, indicating the presence of a gallery within.

The aisles occupy the eastern length of the nave only, suggesting that earlier full-length aisles were possibly truncated during the 16th century. The fenestration of the surviving aisles suggests a 15th-century date, though the fabric may be earlier. A blocked round-arched doorway in the north aisle may also indicate an earlier date. The south aisle has a shallow gabled roof with an embattled parapet, probably of 16th-century date and narrower than the north aisle.

A 16th-century clerestory with four paired trefoiled lights is present in the eastern section of the nave over the aisles. Changes in the masonry of the western end of the nave suggest that its height was raised at some point. Its upper windows are 19th-century and square-headed, while below are wide lancet windows of probably earlier date. The windows on the north side of the nave suggest the presence of an internal gallery.

A north porch was added in 1838 against the west wall of the north aisle. The north aisle features massive buttressing, with a blocked door towards the west. It contains a 3-light window with simple geometric tracery and a rose window towards the east. The east wall of the aisle has a wide 5-light Decorated window.

The chancel features a lean-to vestry to the south. Medieval masonry is visible in the north wall, which also clearly reveals that Street's rebuilding represented an extension of the original chancel length. The east wall displays a large 5-light window in Decorated style. To the south of the chancel is a chapel or organ chamber with a 3-light window set high in the east wall, a south doorway, and a 3-light window with hoodmould forming a continuous string course. The south aisle comprises three bays with a porch towards the west end, a rose window to the east, and a central 3-light window. A sundial over the rose window is dated 1815.

Interior

The nave arcade consists of three bays towards the east only. These truncated aisles themselves comprised four bays until the early 19th century. The western end of the nave is filled by a late 18th or early 19th-century gallery, shown on a plan of 1816, raked back to the east wall of the tower and carried on wooden Doric columns, approached by stairs to the south. The western bay of the nave below the gallery and the base of the tower itself are now screened off to form meeting rooms.

The octagonal piers of the nave arcade are early 19th-century replacements of earlier cylindrical piers, with double chamfered arches. Engaged shafts spring from corbels to the chancel arch. The 16th-century nave roof, restored around 1856 by Ewan Christian, features deep panels between moulded principals, purlins and ridge, with bosses at their intersections.

The wide north aisle forms a separate chapel with early 20th-century dado panelling and reredos. A blocked round-arched doorway is present. The east window of the chapel contains stained glass dated 1878 by Morris and Company; the rose window to the north also displays glass by Morris and Company. A brass set into the east wall dates to 1597 and commemorates John Ashenburst and his four wives.

The south aisle is narrower than the north, containing Morris and Company glass in the east window and rose window, the latter being a memorial to Dame Elizabeth Wardle, who died in 1902. A wall memorial to members of the Bulkeley family dates to the early 18th century.

A marble font in the south aisle, dated 1867, is octagonal with heavily recessed panels with inlaid reliefs depicting the baptism and its Old Testament precursors. A low marble screen leads to the chancel, which has an encaustic tiled floor and barrel vaulted panelled ceiling.

An enriched timber pulpit, octagonal and corbelled out from a narrow base, is canopied with niches in each face carrying statues carved by Earpe to designs by Street. A cast-iron screen in stone tracery fills the two-bay arcade to the organ chamber to the south. Cast-iron and brass altar rails are present. A marble reredos features a central inlaid cross and figures of saints in canopied niches on each side, with simpler marble wall panelling continuing across the sanctuary. All these fittings were designed by Street.

The windows contain stained glass possibly by Clayton and Bell, though the colours are now badly faded. Similar glass appears in the south window of the south aisle chapel.

The church is also notable for examples of the work of the Leek School of Embroidery, including altar frontals and an embroidered panel depicting part of the Hierarchy of Angels.