Parish Church of St Leonards is a Grade I listed building in the Huntingdonshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 14 May 1959. A {"late C14",C13,C15,C14,Cl7} Church.
Parish Church of St Leonards
- WRENN ID
- far-dormer-brook
- Grade
- I
- Local Planning Authority
- Huntingdonshire
- Constituency
- Huntingdon MP: Ben Obese-Jecty (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 14 May 1959
- Type
- Church
- Address
- Parish Church of St Leonards, Church Road, Catworth
- OS grid reference
- TL 088 733
- Coordinates
- 52.34757, -0.40308
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The parish church of St Leonards is largely a late 14th-century rebuilding of an earlier 13th-century structure, with a 17th-century chancel, a north vestry, and a clerestory. The church was restored in 1876 and again in 1939, with the fine 15th-century roofs being restored at that time and notable for the carved head-stops to the main beams. The walls are constructed from pebbles, limestone rubble, and ashlar, with lead and plain tile roofs.
The late 14th-century tower, of four stages, has an embattled parapet featuring four gargoyles and carved grotesque corbels along the parapet string course, above a frieze of quatrefoils. The west doorway has moulded jambs and a two-centred arch. The west window is four-centred with two transomed, trefoiled lights. Similar paired windows are located in two-centred arches within each belfry wall, and there are two small cruciform loops in the north and south walls. The ashlar spire, of five stages, has two tiers of four spire lights.
The embattled south clerestory has four windows, each with two cinquefoil lights set within a four-centred arch, along with five gargoyles.
The south aisle contains three 14th-century windows, which have been altered and restored. A parapetted south porch has two carved gargoyles and a two-centred archway with attached shafts, moulded capitals, and bases. The mid-13th century doorway has a two-centred moulded arch consisting of three hollow-chamfered orders and jambs of three shafts with stiff-leaf foliage to the capitals. The 15th-century oak door has planks with integrated fillet mouldings, original trellis battens and a slot for the bar.
The 15th-century chancel has three windows with two cinquefoil, two-light openings.
Inside, the late 14th-century chancel arch is two-centred with wave-moulded orders and shafted responds, featuring moulded capitals and bases. The tower arch is two-centred with a continuous moulded order. The four bays of the nave arcades have two-centred, wave-moulded arches, with four shafts, moulded capitals, and bases separated by a hollow chamber to each pier.
A 14th-century font has a plain octagonal bowl. Fragments of 15th-century glass are present in the chancel, nave, and south aisle windows. An oak screen, dating from the 15th century, was restored in 1939. The pulpit is also 15th century, much restored. The piscina is from the 13th century, originally double, and has been reset.
Memorials include those to Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Brudenell (1656), Dr John Lawton and Rose (Driden) (1710), Matthew Maddock (1788) by William Cox of Northampton (1717–1793), and Elizabeth Booth (1846) by Maile and Son.
Local climate
Parish Church of St Leonards sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 690 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 97% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 92% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 35 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 54% of listed buildings. Of these, 16 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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