Church Of St Leonard

Church of St Leonard

This is a parish church with 12th-century origins, substantially altered in the mid-15th century and again around 1837, then restored in 1864–1865 by Kirk and Parry. The building is constructed of dressed coursed sandstone rubble in parts and sandstone ashlar elsewhere, with plain tiled roofs featuring parapets and finials at the gable ends.

The plan comprises a west tower, a three-bay nave with a south porch, and a two-bay chancel with a north vestry and organ chamber. The architectural style is predominantly Perpendicular.

The west tower dates from the 15th century and rises in three stages with strings, a chamfered plinth, and diagonal corner buttresses with offsets. The west face contains a three-light window and a south doorway. The second stage has a west clockface and rectangular lights in the north and south elevations. The bell chamber has two-light louvred openings with hoodmoulds and head stops. An embattled parapet crowns the tower, with a gargoyle projecting from the centre of each face. A tower stair in the south-west corner is lit by loopholes.

The south aisle of the nave was added around 1170 and widened in the 15th century; the north aisle dates from around 1837. Both the nave and north aisle were rebuilt in 1864–1865. The north aisle has a separate gabled roof with bracketed eaves and comprises four bays, the fourth bay flanking the tower. Buttresses with offsets mark the bay divisions, and all windows are of three lights with hoodmoulds and foliated stops. The south aisle has a catslide roof, a diagonal west corner buttress, and an east-end buttress with offsets. It retains two two-light windows with square heads and a pointed two-light window at each end.

The south porch is gabled and dates from the mid-19th century. It has a pointed archway of two orders, the inner being shafted, and contains a restored pointed south doorway.

The chancel dates from the 15th century and has a moulded stepped plinth with diagonal east-end buttresses with offsets. All openings have hoodmoulds with head stops. The east wall contains a five-light window, and the south elevation has two two-light square-headed windows flanking an ogee-arched doorway. Above this doorway is a 17th-century wall monument. The north vestry and organ chamber are additions of 1864–1865 continuing the style of the north aisle, with a three-light east window and a lancet in the north elevation to the left of a large stone chimney carried on three corbels. A small 20th-century lean-to exists at the east end.

The interior features three-bay pointed nave arcades of two orders resting on circular columns. The south arcade retains some 12th-century masonry, and the columns have trumpet scalloped capitals. The tower arch dates from the 15th century and has two orders, the inner interrupted by moulded capitals. The chancel arch is of three orders and is a mid-19th-century reconstruction. Nineteenth-century archways connect the north aisle and chancel to the vestry. The chancel retains a 15th-century wagon roof; 19th-century roofs are found elsewhere.

The chancel contains an ogee-arched piscina, and a Latin inscription appears on the east jamb of the south doorway. A piscina also exists in the south aisle. A 19th-century stone font in the form of a column with a cushion capital stands in the church; it also features a three-sided base with traceried arcading.

Memorials are of particular interest. The chancel holds several 19th-century memorials to the Liell family on the north side and several to the Amphlett family on the south side. One Amphlett memorial features spiral Corinthian columns, a broken segmental pediment, and a coat of arms. In the tower base are two notable memorials: one probably dating from the 17th century with Corinthian columns, an open segmental pediment, and a coat of arms; the other is a large cartouche decorated with putti and an urn finial.

The church retains medieval masonry, a good medieval chancel roof, and memorials of particular historical and artistic interest.