Roman Catholic Chapel Of St Leonard

The Roman Catholic Chapel of St Leonard is a building with a long history, originally founded in 1167 by Sir Walter Vavasour. The present structure was largely built between 1283 and 1285 for Sir William Vavasour, with subsequent additions and alterations. These include a bellcote dated 1680 and a mid-18th century refurbishment of the interior, likely carried out by John Carr.

The chapel is constructed of dressed magnesian limestone with a grey slate roof. It comprises a continuous four-bay nave and chancel, a west bellcote, a south porch, and a south vestry. Architectural features include a plinth, quoins, offset buttresses to the bays and angles, and a stepped eaves course. The southern entrance to the porch is a chamfered pointed arch with a hood-mould topped with a figure of Saint Leonard, leading to a double-chamfered, pointed-arched opening with a probable 15th-century traceried and studded door, later fitted with a grill. A blocked priest’s door to the chancel, within a chamfered surround, and a similar blocked door on the north side under a hood-mould also exist. The windows are predominantly two-light, with Y-tracery, and there is a blocked east window under a hood-mould. The south side shows evidence of earlier windows in straight-headed surrounds. The bellcote on the west end has an eroded cross at its apex.

Inside, the walls are colour-washed and feature a dentil and modillion cornice and a coved ceiling. The east end incorporates pairs of Corinthian columns on carved plinths, supporting a frieze and a broken segmental pediment with a dentil and modillion cornice. A gallery on Roman Doric columns, featuring a balustrade with triglyphs and vase-on-upturned-vase motifs, occupies the west end. Other internal features include a trefoil-headed piscina, a trefoil-headed niche, a 15th-century stone alms box with iron doors and carved bearded heads, a trefoil-headed stoup, and a carved niche for a bell.

The chapel also contains several monuments. Two early 14th-century tomb recesses hold the effigies of Sir William Vavasour (died 1313) and his son, Sir Walter Vavasour (died 1315-16). A further Tudor-arched recess exists. A large wall monument commemorates Sir Thomas Vavasour (died 1632) and his wife Ursula (died 1649) and their nine children; it retains decapitated kneeling figures of children, though larger kneeling figures are believed to represent John Vavasour (died 1609) and his wife Eleanor. A Baroque monument commemorates Sir Walter (died 1731) and Dame Jane, with five disarranged figures. Medieval tomb stones with incised crosses are in the nave and porch, alongside a slab marking the burial of John Price (died 1738). Stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops are present.