Church Of St Leodegarius

Church of St Leodegarius

A parish church of the 14th and 15th centuries, built of squared coursed ironstone and sandstone with uncoursed rubble. The building comprises a chancel with a north chapel, an aisled nave with north and south porches, and a west tower.

The external walls show a mix of Perpendicular and earlier Gothic work. The chancel has a 19th-century east window, a priest's door with a wood lintel in the south wall, and a Perpendicular 2-light window above it, along with a large blocked straight-headed opening in the left bay. The south aisle contains a blocked arch in its east wall, probably leading to a former south chapel. Both north and south aisles have Perpendicular 3-light windows with panel tracery, though the tracery in the windows west of the porch and in the west wall of the south aisle has been renewed. The north chapel displays Perpendicular 3-light windows with quatrefoil tracery.

The south porch is 14th-century with a gable roof. Its inner doorway has an ogee-shaped arch with continuous mouldings and retains an old studded plank door. The north porch is Perpendicular in style and has been converted for use as a vestry; it has a blocked outer doorway with a moulded arch and plain jambs. The west tower is Decorated, with three stages, a crenellated parapet, and bell openings of 2 lights with panel tracery.

The interior contains Perpendicular nave arcades of four bays with double-chamfered arches and octagonal piers. A rood screen of around 1500 features four traceried openings, coving with fan vaulting, and a dado with blind tracery and original painted decoration. Two square Jacobean manorial pews flank the entrances to the chancel, carved with blind arcading and stylised foliage. A Jacobean 3-decker pulpit stands in the nave, alongside 14th- and 15th-century benches with blind tracery to their ends. The aisles contain 18th-century box pews facing inwards to the nave, and a musicians' pew is located at the west end of the south aisle. 18th-century altar rails are present.

The church contains an exceptionally complete cycle of wall paintings of the Passion of Christ dating to around 1500, though very faded. Additional wall paintings include St Christopher on the north wall, the Flagellation of St Margaret (circa 1325) behind the chancel arch, and a representation of Death with pick and shovel (16th century) south of the tower arch.

Medieval stained glass fragments survive, including the Catesby coat of arms (14th-15th century) and the figure of a bishop (circa 1470).

The chancel contains a series of notable monuments. John Ianson (died 1663) is commemorated by an alabaster oval wall tablet with a life-size three-quarter figure. Brian Ianson (died 1634) and his wife are shown on an alabaster wall monument with kneeling figures and children below. Joseph Ashley (died 1737) has a grey and white marble architectural wall tablet with a pediment and winged cherubs' heads, signed by N. Hedges. Moses Ashley (died 1740) is commemorated by a grey and white marble wall monument with a portrait bust in a roundel, also by N. Hedges. John Bentley Ashley (died 1761) has a standing wall monument by John Bacon (1784) with two large allegorical figures flanking the inscription, above which is a sarcophagus bearing a Roman lamp in front of a black obelisk. James Ashley (died 1798) is recorded by a simple wall monument with an urn and obelisk. The north chapel contains a monument to George Henry Arnold (died 1844) by I. Wheeler of Reading, a Gothic shrine with an elaborate canopy featuring crocketed pinnacles.

Brasses commemorate Thomas Stokes (died 1416) and his wife, Sir William Catesby (died 1472) and his wife (one figure only remains), and George Catesby (died 1505).