Church of St Leonard is a Grade II listed building in the Cumberland local planning authority area, England. First listed on 9 August 1984. Church.
Church of St Leonard
- WRENN ID
- lost-ledge-bramble
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Cumberland
- Constituency
- Whitehaven and Workington MP: Josh MacAlister (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 9 August 1984
- Type
- Church
- Address
- Church of St Leonard, Church Street, Cleator Moor
- OS grid reference
- NY 014 134
- Coordinates
- 54.50691, -3.52395
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Leonard is a parish church located on Church Street in Cleator Moor. The chancel dates back to the 12th century and was raised in the late 18th century, while the rest of the church was rebuilt in 1841. Additions made around 1903 by architect J.H. Martindale include a western baptistry, a north porch, and a vestry, with the date inscribed in the spandrels of the porch door.
The chancel features sandstone blocks set on a chamfered plinth, with pilaster buttresses and a blocking course. The remainder of the church is constructed from snecked rubble, with stepped buttresses and castellated parapets. The roofs are covered with graduated slate and topped with apex crosses on stone copings, and there is a gabled bellcote at the west end above the porch. The vestry on the north side has corniced octagonal stone chimneys.
The nave includes the western baptistry and the north porch, with a lower chancel. The chancel's side walls have original windows, while the east end features triple lancets that may be from the 19th century. Other windows are early 20th-century copies of 16th-century designs, with traceried windows on the west end and south side. There are two segment-headed arches leading to the north porch, with a vestry door to the east and a porch door to the west, which has an inscription above it. A stone bench runs along the nave wall.
Inside, the church has a four-bay nave with a hammer-beam roof, and the chancel features foliate bosses on a wooden barrel vault. The baptistry and chancel have four-centred arches with Gothic panelling in the reveals. A medieval piscina is located in the chancel, and there is Gothic wainscoting that is possibly from the 19th century. A mural stair on the south side of the nave leads to a polygonal carved stone pulpit. The font, which may date from the 17th century, has a hexagonal bowl on a column supported by an octagonal plinth. Stained glass windows were created by Heaton, Butler & Bayne from London, as well as Abbott & Co. from London and Lancaster. The nave and choir seating were installed around 1906.
Local climate
Church of St Leonard sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,570 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 99% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 99% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 16 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 84% of listed buildings. Of these, 7 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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