Roman Catholic Church of St Leonard and St Mary, and churchyard wall

Roman Catholic Church of St Leonard and St Mary, and churchyard wall

This is a parish church, now Roman Catholic, with late 12th-century origins, a 15th-century tower, and a 19th-century spire (rebuilt after 1984). The building underwent extensive restoration and rebuilding in 1907.

The church is constructed from ashlar, originally using Hildenley limestone, with later repairs and rebuilding in sandstone. The chancel and nave have red plain tiled roofs, while the north aisle has a lead roof. The spire is timber and slate. Stone crosses mark the eastern gables of the nave and chancel.

The building consists of a chancel and nave, each with a north aisle, a west tower, and a small shallow north porch at the eastern end of the nave's aisle.

The chancel comprises three bays with diagonal buttresses at its east end and offset buttresses along the south wall. The east window is a five-light, two-stage panel-traceried window without cusps, set in a two-centred arch with a hoodmould finished with stops in the form of crowned male and female heads. The three south windows are each of three lights set in four-centred arches with hoodmoulds. A sill band connects the windows, running around the buttresses and extending along the south wall of the nave and the eastern portion of the north aisle.

The nave contains four bays, with the third from the west being blind. Its windows are two-centred with hoodmoulds displaying three-light, two-stage uncusped tracery. The south wall has a stepped buttress at the east gable and a slighter pilaster buttress at the west gable.

The north aisle features a buttress and raised coping aligned with the junction between the nave and chancel. Its windows are 15th-century in style, consisting of groups of two and three lancets with four-centred heads, each group set beneath a square-headed hoodmould. Towards the east end is a vestry door in a 15th-century style surround, and a similar doorway leads to a small shallow porch with a stone roof, positioned immediately west of the aisle's central buttress.

The tower rises through four stages. The lower three stages date from the 15th century and show heavily eroded stonework, whilst later repairs, diagonal buttresses, and the top stage display crisp masonry. The bottom stage contains a west door with ornate strap hinges, approached by a flight of steps and protected by a shallow open porch with a stone roof and cross finial. The second stage features a west window of three tall lancets with two-centred heads beneath a single arched hoodmould. Above this is a heavily eroded carved panel of early 13th-century or earlier date, depicting a bishop standing on the heads of two snakes. The third stage is lit by small lancets set centrally to each face except the east. The 19th-century fourth stage has louvered two-light belfry windows with cusped tracery to each face, with clock faces set above except on the east face. The tower top is embattled and crowned with a needle spire and iron cross finial.

The interior retains two three-bay arcades with cylindrical columns and round arches. The northern arcade is slightly earlier, with square abaci and bases to the columns and a simple single chamfer to the arches. The arcade between the chancel and north chapel features double-chamfered arches and columns with circular abaci, moulded caps and bases. The rebuilt chancel arch consists of two orders with a two-centred arch and leaf-stopped hoodmould, rising from clustered shafts with moulded caps and bases. The medieval tower arch comprises three hollow-chamfered orders, with the inner springing from carved corbels in the form of green man masks. The chancel features a timber wagon roof with carved bosses. The nave roof has arch-braced trusses lacking tie beams, with scallop-edged plank windbraces to the double purlins.

Medieval sculpture is a notable feature of the church. Beyond the tower arch corbels, there are a further 23 pieces of figurative medieval sculpture within the building, reset as a corbel table above the nave arcade. Most appear to have been originally corbels, though some are voussoirs and one is a carved panel. Several are stylistically dated to the second half of the 12th century (including the panel and the first and last corbel heads), with some possibly dating to the 13th century.

The church contains four stained glass windows: the main east window serves as a First World War memorial; two windows on the south side of the chancel date to 1907 and depict The Charity of St Leonard and Christ the Comforter; and a window depicting Our Lady within a mandorla, reset in a timber screen infilling the tower arch, was brought from the Roman Catholic chapel of St Marys, Well Lane, Malton.

At least 14 wall-mounted memorials are present within the church, mostly dating before the mid-19th century. The earliest is a timber hatchment bearing the Royal Coat of Arms of George I, dated 1716, probably commemorating the defeat of the First Jacobite Rebellion. The remainder are stone or marble, with the exception of an iron and bronze memorial featuring dolphins and Tuscan columns, dedicated to Arthur Gibson, a Malton brass and iron founder who died in 1837.

The church retains a plain tub font, probably dating from the 12th century, situated at the west end of the north aisle. A 15th-century piscina has been reset in the south wall of the chancel. The tower contains a peal of eight bells dated 1768, cast by Lester and Pack of London and rehung with new fittings in 1950.

The churchyard to the south of the church is enclosed by a wall standing 2 to 3 metres high, constructed from coursed squared stone, principally weathered Hildenley limestone with later repairs and alterations using smaller oolite blocks. This wall extends from the tower south-eastwards, stepping down the slope. The use of Hildenley limestone suggests the wall is likely pre-18th-century in date, possibly late medieval.