Church Of St Leonard

Church of St Leonard

This Anglican parish church stands on Church Road in Bledington and dates from the 12th to 15th centuries. It underwent restoration by J.E.K. Cutts in 1881 and by F.E. Howard around 1923.

The church is built of limestone rubble with dressed stone detail. The chancel is constructed of coursed squared limestone rubble with some squared and dressed blocks. The nave walls are of limestone rubble with dressed limestone quoins. The porch is built of coursed squared and dressed limestone. The chancel and porch have stone slate roofs; other roofs are not visible from outside.

The plan comprises a nave with an incorporated tower at its west end, a south aisle with porch, and a passage squint or chantry linking the east end of the south aisle to the chancel.

The 13th-century chancel south wall contains a two-light stone-mullioned cinquefoil window with stopped hood and carved spandrels, and a single rectangular light to the right. The east end has a three-light stepped lancet with trefoil-headed lights and stopped hood, all 13th century. The north wall preserves an original single-light lancet alongside a 14th-century two-light window with trefoil head and quatrefoil to the left.

The buttressed nave has a north wall lit by four 15th-century rectangular windows of two and three lights with moulded stone mullions, cincefoil heads and Perpendicular tracery. A plank door with cover strips is positioned off-centre right within a heavily moulded surround. Windows and door are surmounted by heavily moulded hoods with stops in the form of carved heads. Above runs a clerestorey with four three-light stone-mullioned windows featuring cinquefoil heads and stopped hoods, with a string course and parapet with moulded capping above.

The two-stage 14th-century tower has strings between stages and a projecting stair turret up the north-west corner. Its west wall contains a three-light window with reticulated tracery under a relieving arch, with a trefoil-headed single light above and a two-light stone-mullioned belfry window above that. The south side has a similar belfry window. The north face displays a large diamond-shaped clock with black figures on a white background and the initials and date V.R. 1891.

The buttressed south aisle was rebuilt in the 15th century. At its west end is a three-light pointed window with Perpendicular tracery. Three-light 15th-century windows flank the porch, similar to those in the north wall. To the right of the porch is a two-light stone-mullioned window with cinquefoil-headed lights. At the east end of the south aisle stands a three-light pointed stone-mullioned window with hollow chamfers, Perpendicular tracery and stopped hood. A string course runs above the windows with a gargoyle at the corner, and the aisle parapet has moulded capping with a scratch sundial on a diagonally set block at the south-west corner.

The buttressed 13th-century porch has a double plank door in a pointed-arched surround with traces of two small mass dials on the left-hand buttress. It is lit by two lancet windows either side. A hood over a window at the east end of the south aisle is continued over a 15th-century three-light rectangular window with Perpendicular tracery in the south wall of the 15th-century passage squint or chantry.

The chancel and porch have flat gable-end coping with upright cross finials. A 12th-century bellcote crowns the chancel gable, comprising two round-arched openings on rectangular piers with quarter columns at the corners, flat gable-end coping and an upright cross finial at the apex.

The interior features an early plank door with 19th-century decorative hinges in a heavily moulded pointed surround with moulded hood and carved head stops. The nave arcade comprises three bays of 12th-century construction with squat round piers carrying roll mouldings around each capital, octagonal abaci and pointed double-chamfered arches. A half-bay at the east end marks where the passage squint or chantry was inserted. A tall pointed arch with hollow mouldings opens from the nave to the tower, with a similar but lower arch connecting the south aisle to the base of the tower and a matching blocked or blind arch in the north wall of the tower. Access to the projecting stair turret from the west end of the south aisle is via a small rectangular opening high in the arcade wall. The chancel arch is pointed with double-chamfered profile, rising from rectangular imposts. A large mutilated cinquefoil opening in the upper left of the arch probably gave access to the rood loft.

Nave windows on the north have concave reveals with pedestal brackets carrying nodding ogee-arched canopies and crocketed pinnacles. Similar reveals appear at the east window of the passage squint or chantry. The east windows of the passage squint or chantry and windows in the nave north wall contain 15th-century painted glass, possibly by John Prudde of Westminster, with some nearly complete panels surviving. A stone roof with six arcaded panels surmounts the recess formed by the passage squint or chantry, which is separated from the chancel by an ornate double-cusped curtain arch springing from angle corbels.

The south aisle has a simple piscina at its east end. The 13th-century chancel features brackets for images either side of the altar with a string below, and a 13th-century piscina with trefoil head and scroll-moulded hood over in the south wall. The floor is stone flagged. Fifteenth-century cambered moulded tie beams are supported by wall posts on corbels, with intermediary wall posts carrying corbels in the form of stone shields. The chancel roof has scissor-braced fittings. A 12th-century stone tub-shaped font stands at the west end of the south aisle. Twentieth-century wood panelling and a pointed door run from the base of the tower to the aisle. Pews were replaced in 1904, though some 15th-century bench ends with decorative blind tracery are retained. A 20th-century wooden pulpit with pierced tracery stands in the north-east corner of the nave. An early wrought-iron hourglass stand, 20th-century chair and desk, and a late 19th or early 20th-century wooden reading desk are also present. A 17th-century communion rail with turned balusters and a 17th-century altar table are in use. The church contains five 17th-century bells and one 19th-century bell. A bell dated 1639, made by James Keene of Woodstock, rests on the floor of the passage squint or chantry.