Church Of St Leonard

This large, ancient parish church stands isolated in its churchyard and contains the most important series of wall paintings in Hertfordshire apart from St Albans Abbey. The building consists of a three-bay chancel, six-bay nave with aisles, north and south gabled porches, a massive three-stage west tower, and a two-storey sacristy on the north side of the chancel.

The church has evolved over eight centuries. The west tower dates from the early 12th century. The nave arcades, aisles, and western part of the chancel are early 13th century work. The northeast sacristy and eastern part of the chancel were added in the early 14th century. The 15th century saw substantial additions: the clearstorey, nave roof, upper stage of the tower with its short spire and massive angle buttresses, the rood-stair at the northeast corner of the nave, and both porches. The tower parapet in brick and buttresses to the aisles date from the 18th century. The nave roof was partly renewed in 1791. Around 1860 the chancel was repaired for University College Oxford. E.F. Cobb carried out a restoration around 1902–5, and in 1974 further restoration included rebuilding and shingling the spire.

The walls are of flint with coursed flint facing and Totternhoe stone dressings. The tower top and parapet are in red brick, and the aisles have brick buttresses. There is much Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) type tile repair to the stonework. The exterior of some clearstorey windows represents a pioneering use of stone-dust faced fibreglass. The south aisle, chancel and sacristy (which is hipped) have steep old red tile roofs, while elsewhere the roofs are low-pitched metal.

The Chancel

The chancel is narrower than the nave and has a steep pitched open timber roof of three bays with clasped-purlin construction on tie-beam and collar trusses. Straight braces support the collars, with curved wind-braces and ashlar pieces to each flat rafter. There is one step up at the chancel arch, another at the altar rail, and a further step at the altar. A moulded stone string runs round the interior below the windows, though it is missing on the rebuilt east wall.

Near the west end of the north wall is a lancet window with a rebate on the outside and deep splays within. Further east is a small door to the sacristy. Within the altar rails, set in a blocked archway, is a large neo-classical monument in veined grey marble signed 'JOHN FLAXMAN FECIT 1782'. It takes the form of a large tablet with two panels of inscription and reclining figures of Hope and Faith with a slender fluted urn between, commemorating Sir Edward Sebright. The oak altar rail dates from around 1700 and has twisted balusters.

The renewed four-light east window has a traceried head in 14th-century Decorated style. Two similar two-light traceried windows have been restored in the south wall. The moulded string is canted up over the priest's door. To the east are stepped 14th-century sedilia with two and one seats having cinquefoil ogee heads, the latter with spandrels. Immediately to the east is a sharply pointed cinquefoil piscina. On the wall above this is an alabaster and marble wall monument to Sir Bartholomew Fouke (died 1604), showing a kneeling figure at a prayer desk under a round arch with panelled pilasters, full entablature, broken pediment and armorial achievement. Projecting console brackets at the base frame the bottom panel with painted inscription and strapwork apron. The brackets formerly carried tall marble obelisks.

The wide 14th-century chancel arch has two chamfered orders and contains a Perpendicular 15th-century oak rood-screen of five bays, the central one being a cinquefoil cusped opening. Each tall bay has six narrow lights with the central mullion running up to the apex of the arched head. There is a 17th-century oak altar table.

Brasses set in the chancel floor commemorate John Oudeby, rector in 1414, shown in vestments with an ogee canopied niche above; a 15th-century figure of a man, his wife and four children; and a slab with indents only.

The Nave

The nave retains the same width as the Norman nave, with a proportion of 1:3. The six-bay early 13th-century arcades were erected on the inner edge of older foundations. They have pointed arches of two hollow chamfered orders, octagonal piers, moulded bases and stiff-leaf capitals. The responds have slim circular attached shafts and capitals with two tiers of leaves. The northeast respond was cut back and the arch widened in the 15th century for access to the rood stair.

There are four clearstorey two-light cinquefoil windows to each side, square-headed externally, in the first, second, fourth and sixth bays from the east. The low-pitched 15th-century open timber roof of six bays features stone corbels carved as angels with shields, which support wall-posts and long curved braces to heavy cambered chamfered tie-beams. Short king-posts with moulded curved braces support the moulded ridge-beam. A moulded purlin to each slope is supported on the tie-beam. Repairs in 1791 are recorded by an inscription on a beam.

On the shafts of the nave arcades are three incised inscriptions recording the burial places of John Pace (died 1596), Ffrauncys Cordell (died 1597), and John Grigge (died 1598). The six-sided oak pulpit dates from 1698 and has bolection-moulded panels and a low pedestal.

The nave contains exceptional wall paintings. The lower parts of four large Apostles in red ochre date from the 13th century. The upper walls feature the Three Living and Three Dead Kings and a very large St Christopher, both 15th century. Christ in Glory on a rainbow and the Doom, also 15th century, appear over the chancel arch, possibly painted over earlier work. There is a narrow pointed upper doorway to the roodloft to the north of the chancel arch, and a small narrow door high up at the west end of the north arcade, which formerly gave access to a west gallery removed in the 19th century.

The North Aisle

The north aisle has a 15th-century east window of two cinquefoil lights, and a similar window on each side of the north porch. A taller three-light 14th-century Decorated window with ogee reticulated tracery lights the altar of the former Beauchamp Earls of Warwick chantry in the two eastern bays of the aisle. The present altar was erected in the 20th century. Wall paintings here are mid-14th-century fragments of six subjects from the Passion of the New Testament. The walls are divided into two tiers by a spiral design in red. Two hatchments of the Sebright family hang on the north wall. The organ stands at the west end.

An early 15th-century tomb chest under the arcade bears stone effigies of a man and woman under a single ogee canopy. There is an image bracket at the northeast corner of the aisle and a trefoil recess in the east respond of the arcade. A painted memorial on framed boards commemorates George Cordell (died 1653), Sergeant of the Ewry to James I and Charles I. The roof has been renewed except for the principals with short wall-posts and knee-braces.

The South Aisle

The narrower south aisle has two three-light windows in the eastern part, restored in a length of wall rebuilt in 1693, and a 15th-century window of three cinquefoil lights to the west. At the east end stands a large altar tomb of around 1690 by William Stanton (costing £1,500) commemorating five children of Thomas Saunders of Beechwood. It is in black marble with kneeling children in white marble, Ionic pilasters and a heavy segmental pediment with armorial cartouche. The original iron railings survive, with a figure of the surviving child. On the south wall nearby is a wall monument to Richard Pearce (died 1800) in white marble with a panel between moulded consoles, an urn finial, and an armorial apron. Two hatchments hang on the wall. The Royal Arms are displayed at the west end. As in the north aisle, the roof has been renewed except for the principals with short wall-posts and knee-braces. Three late medieval oak benches stand at the west end.

The West Tower

The west tower measures 17 feet square internally. It has a wide 12th-century depressed semi-circular east arch with chamfered label and imposts, which was underbuilt in the late 13th century with a pointed arch of three moulded orders and half-octagonal responds. A consecration cross appears on the south jamb. The 15th-century pointed moulded west doorway has a contemporary two-light pointed window above with a quatrefoil in the head. Each face of the tower has a blocked two-light round-arched former bell opening.

There is a pilaster buttress at the east end of the north wall, and a larger projection with a spiral stair in the corresponding position on the south, with a round-headed narrow doorway at its foot. The 15th-century added top bell stage has walls set in on the outside above a moulded string, with a two-light cinquefoil square-headed bell opening in each face. Two hatchments hang in the base of the tower.

The Porches

The square north porch is 15th century and gabled, with a two-centred opening having hollow-chamfered and plain chamfered orders without imposts. The original open timber roof has flat rafters carried on moulded ridge and wall-plates. A short king-post with curved brace to the ridge stands on moulded tie-beams.

The south porch has diagonal buttresses and a brick gable parapet. Its two-centred doorway has two chamfered orders without imposts and boarded double doors.

The Sacristy

The two-storey sacristy, now the vestry, on the north side of the chancel measures 16 feet by 9 feet internally and has diagonal corner buttresses. It has a narrow 14th-century square-headed window on the east and two symmetrically placed on each floor on the north wall, with a fireplace between them on the ground floor. At the south end of the west wall is a curved recess for a winding stair. The unheated upper floor has stone corbels to support beams and an arched piscina in the west wall. The hipped roof is probably 18th century.

Fittings

Many of the present pews are made from the old box pews. One bench end in the north aisle has 'VICAR' carved upside-down. The octagonal stone font was repaired in 1852.