Church Of St Leonard

Church of St Leonard

A parish church of late 13th-century origin, substantially enlarged and rebuilt during the 19th century. The building is constructed of coursed rubble and ashlar limestone with a stone slate roof. It comprises a nave with north and south aisles, a chancel with north and south chapels, a south vestry, and a west tower.

The exterior displays the layered history of the building's development. The 15th-century tower has been extensively restored in the 19th century and features a three-stage structure with diagonal offset buttresses, a large continuous plinth moulding interrupted by a pointed-arched west doorway. Scattered chamfered rectangular openings pierce the lower and middle stages, while large two-light stone louvred belfry openings display Perpendicular tracery. Two gargoyles sit on each face between two string courses, and the crenellated parapet incorporates trefoil-headed lancet panelling. Tall corner pinnacles with crocket enrichment complete the tower. A double bellcote, moved from the north chapel in the 19th century, sits on the east parapet gable of the nave.

The south side presents large four-light windows in late Perpendicular style set in an offset buttressed wall, while the west aisle has set-back buttresses at its corner. A reset Norman doorway in the south aisle, largely restored in the 19th century, retains attached columns with scalloped capitals, enriched imposts, and an arch with dogtooth ornament within roll moulding. A 19th-century pointed-arched south doorway with hood opens beneath a porch featuring a parapet gable and diagonal buttresses; the porch arch is pointed with a trefoil panel over, and an arched collar truss supports the roof, with internal stone seats below trefoil-headed side lancets.

The north aisle includes a 19th-century three-light window with Decorated tracery and a two-light to its right, with a parapet gable to the east end and diagonal corner buttress. The north chapel, early 14th-century in origin, has a restored east two-light and a single trefoil lancet to the north. The chancel features a parapet gabled east wall with diagonal offset buttresses and two east trefoil lancets, while the south chancel wall displays two 19th-century trefoil lancets under a combined hood. The south chapel has a parapet east gable with a wholly 19th-century east window. The south vestry, which projects to the left, displays a south parapet gable and a two-light east trefoil lancet, with a cinquefoil surrounding the south vestry doorway, which retains its 19th-century plank door.

The interior is notably spacious, with wide aisles added in the 19th century. The south aisle, added in 1835 by Thomas Fulljames in the style of a Commissioner's Church, features a three-bay Perpendicular arcade with four-centred arches on octagonal columns and a six-bay aisle roof with flat roof trusses. The north aisle, added in 1850 and designed in the High Victorian manner, comprises an arcade of two large arches flanked by two small pointed arches with chamfered archivolts rising from corbels to responds and piers. Its roof features two large and two small bays matching the arcade, with arched scissor-braced trusses supported on carved stone angel corbels, each bearing a blank shield. The nave roof is a 19th-century restored braced collar design.

The 19th-century chancel arch appears misshaped with very small archivolt corbels. Two-bay arcades line the north and south sides of the chancel, topped with a three-bay arched braced collar truss roof with cusped apex strutting and arched windbracing. Two sedilia occupy the south chancel wall, and a raised tiled altar floor sits beneath a mosaic reredos with an iron screen to the north chapel, all designed by Henry Woodyer in 1849. A 19th-century trefoil-headed piscina stands to the south side of the chancel, accompanied by 19th-century altar rails and choir stalls. The north chapel features a wagon roof, while the south chapel displays a panelled roof with brattished wall plate.

Furnishings include nave pews by Waller and Son (1889), a 19th-century octagonal pulpit with carved inset panels, and a round Norman bowl font set on a later moulded circular base.

The church contains notable memorials of varying periods. A large neoclassical monument by Thomas Ricketts of Gloucestershire commemorates S Thomas Snell (died 1754), featuring a sarcophagus surmounted by an urn on a pedestal with gadrooned and moulded sides, flanked by two putti. A memorial to James Steers (died 1817) by Wood of Gloucester, now largely obscured by the organ, comprises an oval inscription panel surmounted by an urn on the north chapel wall. An inscription panel with obelisk shape on the north nave arcade memorialises Samuel Smith (died 1794). A monument to John Dearman Birchall (died 1897) features an alabaster frame with mosaic inlay.

The church contains a notable collection of 19th-century stained glass by various designers: the south chancel windows are by Thomas Willement; the two east chancel lancets (1849) are by William Wailes of Newcastle; the south chapel east window (1905) is by Bosdet of Chiswick; and the north aisle west window (1859) is by David Evans of Shrewsbury.

While little of the original late 13th-century church survives, the extensive Victorian additions and rebuilding are of good quality throughout. The church was enlarged in 1835 by Thomas Fulljames, 1849 by Henry Woodyer, 1850 by Francis Niblett, and 1889 by Waller and Son.