Church Of St Leonard

Church of St Leonard, Yanworth

This church is presumed to have been a former private chapel for the lords of Stowell Park. It dates from the 12th century (Transitional period), with 13th-century work and 17th-century additions. The building was restored in 1898 by C. Hodgson Fowler.

The church is built of limestone rubble with ashlar used around the south door and at the west end. The north transept is constructed of coursed squared and dressed limestone, whilst the chancel is mostly limestone rubble incorporating large squared and dressed blocks. The south transept is limestone rubble. The roof is covered in stone slate.

The plan is cruciform, comprising a nave, north and south transepts, and a chancel. There was formerly a central tower, now collapsed and re-roofed.

The south wall of the nave contains a 20th-century plank door with fillets within a 12th-century surround featuring a plain recessed semi-circular tympanum with moulded imposts and semi-circular chamfered hood. The ashlar masonry around this doorway stands proud of the rest of the south wall. To the left of the door is a 19th-century two-light hollow-moulded stone-mullioned casement with cinquefoil-headed lights and a stopped hood.

The west wall of the nave has a central canted buttress pierced by a small round-headed 12th-century window. The buttress forms a point at its top, with a grotesque beast's head at the apex. Remains of a chamfered string course are visible above. The north wall of the nave has a narrow blocked north door with a shouldered dressed stone surround.

The north transept was rebuilt in the 17th century after the collapse of the tower. Its west wall contains a two-light hollow-chamfered stone-mullioned casement with cincefoil-headed lights and a stopped hood. The gable end is lit by a two-light pointed window with cinquefoil-headed lights, a dagger and stopped hood. The east wall has a 19th-century plank door to the vestry with a 19th-century flat-chamfered dressed stone surround.

The chancel's north wall has an ashlar buttress at its far right. A Decorated two-light east window features trefoil-headed lights and a quatrefoil with a stopped hood. The south wall has a 19th-century two-light stone-mullioned casement with trefoil-headed lights and tracery. A diagonal buttress with offsets marks the junction with the south transept. The gable end of the south transept is lit by a Decorated two-light window matching that at the chancel's east end. A small 13th-century lancet is present in the west wall of the south transept.

The south side of the church bears five incised scratch sundials: on the south-west angle of the transept, beside the east jamb of the south door (two examples), and on the left jamb (one example), with another on the west angle of the nave.

The roofline features flat coping at the chancel's gable end, stopped coping at the west end of the nave and at the gable ends of the north and south transepts, and upright cross finials at the gable ends of the chancel, north transept, and south transept. An elaborate stone saddle with ogee-curved trefoil decoration crowns the gable end of the nave. A tile-hung open-sided bell turret with a tall curved pyramidal roof stands at the east end of the nave. A cross-gabled roof covers the former central tower.

The interior is plastered with fragments of wall paintings visible. The crossing features pointed Transitional arches with double-chamfering. The west arch has carved capitals showing development towards stiff-leaf carving. Similar columns and capitals (lacking decorative carving) face into the transepts. Engaged columns face into the crossing. A 19th-century roof with arch-braced collars spans the nave. The ceilings of the crossing and transepts are panelled with carved wooden bosses within the crossing. A panelled 19th-century roof rises to a point with curving foliate carving at its apex. Stone flag flooring covers most of the interior, with plank flooring in the transepts. Two steps rise to the chancel.

A flat-chamfered trefoil-headed piscina is located in the south wall of the south transept. A blocked tall narrow flat-chamfered doorway, presumably giving former access to the tower, is positioned in the north wall of the chancel just inside the chancel arch. A mutilated 14th-century pointed-arched Easter sepulchre stands in the same wall near the altar. The south wall of the chancel contains a piscina with a flat-chamfered shouldered surround with moulded steps and a trefoil-headed credence shelf above.

Furnishings include a 13th-century octagonal stone font at the west end of the nave. The pews and pulpit are 20th-century oak. A vestry in the north transept is divided from the remainder of the church by a 20th-century carved oak screen. A 20th-century brass eagle lectern is present. A scratch sundial, reputedly of pre-Conquest date, is positioned on the sill of the south window of the south transept.

Monuments include a grey marble monument to Lady Annabella Howe, widow of John Howe of Compton, who died in 1703 or 1704, located in the chancel to the left of the Easter sepulchre. A grey marble monument to Mrs Anne Morgan, who died in 1712, stands on the opposite wall.

A large portion of a Doom wall painting dating to circa 1150–1200 covers the north wall of the nave. It depicts the Heavenly Court at the top with Our Lady seated at the centre, flanked either side by the Apostles arranged in pairs within an arcade of round-headed arches, observing the sifting of souls below. Fragments of two further wall paintings of similar date are present within the south transept. These paintings represent particularly well-preserved examples of an early date. Traces of painting incorporating foliate motifs appear on the inside of the tympanum over the south door. A 19th-century stained glass east window is also present.