Church Of St Leonard

The Church of St Leonard is a church with origins in the late 13th century, with an aisle widened in the 14th century. The tower was remodelled or completely rebuilt around 1720. The nave and porch were largely rebuilt in 1863, and the chancel in 1865, by Spragg and Joyce. The building is constructed of ironstone with limestone dressings, incorporating coursed rubble for the aisle, squared coursed rubble for the nave, regular coursed stone for the chancel, vestry and porch, and ashlar for the tower. Tile roofs are finished with ridge cresting and coped gable parapets, and a stone stack.

The church consists of a chancel, nave, north aisle, north vestry, west tower, and south porch. The chancel has a splayed plinth and a three-light east window with a hood mould and head stops. There are two two-light south and one north windows, all with geometrical tracery. The north side features a chimney above the vestry. The south porch has a splayed plinth, low-angle buttresses flush with the front, a two-order moulded doorway, a door with Gothic openwork panels and grille, and square-headed two-light windows with stop-chamfered jambs.

The interior south doorway, dating from the late 13th century, retains a hood mould with return stops and a ribbed, studded door with old strap hinges. The nave’s north side has two two-light windows east of the porch, and a lancet and two-light window west of the porch, all with plate tracery. The vestry features splayed plinth and angle buttresses. The east side has paired trefoiled lancets, a circle with a cross, and a segmental pointed arch, all under a lean-to roof. The aisle has diagonal and north angle buttresses, a chamfered Tudor arch doorway of around 1500 with a 19th-century plank door, three late 14th-century two-light straight-headed Decorated north windows (partly renewed), and a two-light west window with basket-arched lights.

The two-stage tower has a high splayed plinth. West angles feature giant clasping Tuscan piers and a string course. A round-arched south door and a west window with Y-tracery and transom are present. The second stage has two small round-arched west windows. Bell openings are similar to the west window and clock faces are located on the north and south sides. It is finished with a cornice and parapet of three panels.

The interior has plastered walls. The chancel has a segmental-pointed rere arch and an arched braced roof with naturalistic foliage corbels. An Early English style chancel arch of three plastered orders is visible. The nave has a five-bay arcade, dating from the late 13th century, with low, wide arches of two chamfered orders and octagonal piers with moulded capitals. A hammerbeam roof with scissor braces provides the ceiling. Fittings include reredos from 1868 and late 19th-century stained glass. A monument to the Bradshaw family, dating from 1770, is located in the north aisle, along with a neoclassical wall monument. The porch floor contains a brass dating from 1688 and inscriptions to Elizabeth and Richard West (1691).