Church of St Leonard is a Grade II* listed building in the Somerset local planning authority area, England. First listed on 11 March 1968. A Medieval Church.
Church of St Leonard
- WRENN ID
- stubborn-cupola-quill
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Somerset
- Constituency
- Frome and East Somerset MP: Anna Sabine (LD)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 11 March 1968
- Type
- Church
- Period
- Medieval
- Address
- Church of St Leonard, Norton St. Philip
- OS grid reference
- ST 799 574
- Coordinates
- 51.31556, -2.28846
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Leonard is a parish church dating back to 1443, with significant remodelling in 1856. It is constructed of roughly coursed rubble Doulting stone with ashlar quoins, and has a stone slate roof with coped gables and finials topped with crosses. The church is built in the Perpendicular style and comprises a West Tower, a Nave with a south porch, and a Chancel.
The unbuttressed West Tower has a stunted spire and weather vane. The ground-floor west door is vertically boarded with iron fittings set within a moulded four-centred Tudor arch. Approximately 1.5 metres above ground level, a secondary entrance is framed by a "Y"-shaped, boarded Tudor arch. Above the main west door is a three-light stone mullion window with cusped perpendicular tracery, a drip mould with stops, and a further chamfered window to the ringing floor. The bell chamber features four two-light, chamfered stone mullioned openings with semi-circular heads, all louvred. Each face of the tower has a pair of stone gargoyles, and is topped with a solid ashlar stone parapet and plain coping.
The Nave has three two-light windows with cavetto moulded stone mullions, square heads, and drip moulds with stop ends; one window exhibits ferrametta. The south porch, situated between the first and second nave windows, has a stone tile roof, coped gable, finial, and cross. The entrance to the porch is through an equilateral, moulded arch, with a re-sited consecration stone bearing the inscription "+MUNIAT HOC TEMPLUM CRUCE GLORIFICANS MICROCOSMUM: QUAE GENUIT CHRISTUM MISERIS PRECE FIAT ASILUM". The Chancel has two two-light windows with cavetto moulded stone mullions, square heads, and drip moulds similar to those in the Nave.
Inside, the porch has a Devon-type wagon roof. The plaster ceiling of the Nave has been removed, exposing the ribs and carved trusses, while the Chancel is similarly exposed and restored to its 1856 appearance. Fragments of 14th-century stained glass are found in the north nave window, and the east Chancel window contains elements of Flemish origin, with cusped, crocketted tripartite ogee arches dating back to around 1830. The Chancel also contains chairs originally from Farleigh Hungerford Castle. A 17th-century altar rail with openwork scrolls and figures is present, alongside an early 18th-century wooden pulpit carved with eagles and angels, and a modern font. Monuments include those commemorating Dorothea Torriano Houlton (1799), John Houlton (1839), Mrs. Shirley (1828), and Lady Wilson (1864), all featuring Gothic canopies.
Local climate
Church of St Leonard receives an average of 870 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 63% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 68% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 34 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 53% of listed buildings. Of these, 15 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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