Description

LEIGHTON AND EATON LEIGHTON SJ 60 NW CONSTANTINE C.P. 2/89 Church of St Mary 13.6.58 GV II*

Parish church. 1714-16 but incorporating medieval plan and fabric, restored mid- to late C19. C18 red brick on coursed sandstone plinth (probably medieval), plain tile roofs with coped verges. Nave, chancel, west belfry, south porch and south-west vestry. Nave: in 2 bays; south side has one late C19 two-light trefoil-headed window with cusped multifoils and trefoils above, C18 gabled porch and contemporary gabled vestry adjoining to west have round-headed doorways (blind to vestry) and pointed cast-iron windows to sides; north side has 2 round-headed windows (c.1714), western with its original Y-tracery; tall narrow multi-paned round-headed west window has similar small opening above; weatherboarded belfry probably late C18 but considerably restored late C20, has twin round-headed openings (?C19) to north, south and west sides, pyramidal roof. Chancel: one late C19 narrow round-headed window on south with blocked segmental-headed C18 doorway to west; late C19 east window of 3 stepped round-headed lights with narrow round-arched window above; north wall blind. Interior: most striking feature is that the walls are of uncoursed sandstone rubble showing that the C18 brick on exterior is in fact only the encasement of a medieval fabric; cambered south doorway with ledged plank door, C18 coved plaster ceiling; west gallery (also c.1714), supported on wooden posts, has elegant turned balusters; plain round-headed chancel arch flanked by C18 hatchment to south and royal coat-of-arms to north; late C18 urn-shaped font on moulded stone pillar, contemporary hexagonal pulpit and late C19 stained glass in east window, restored C17 communion table. Monuments: in nave; cast-iron floor tablet to William Browne (died 1696) and another (dated 1677) with inscription panels removed; in chancel (south side), late C13 cross-legged stone effigy of knight, probably a member of the Leighton family, retaining traces of paint and with feet resting on a lion; north side, large alabaster tomb chest with incised top slab to William Leighton (died 1520) and wife; large C18 wall memorials to members of the Kynnersley and Leighton families that to Elizabeth Leighton (died 1754) by William Baker; in the centre of the north wall a prominent memorial to Thomas Kynnersley (died 1843), substantial pedestal with coat-of-arms and Greek key ornament to top, surmounted by draped urn, signed by J. Evan Thomas; another mid-C18 wall memorial to south of chancel arch in nave; C18 stone texts (one reciting Ten Commandments) hang on nave north and south walls and in the porch is a wooden board recording benefactions to the church; slab on north wall of nave commemorating Henry Binnell, vicar (died 1717), formerly below east window outside. A priest is recorded at Leighton in Domesday. B.o.E., p.165; D.H.S. Cranage, The Churches of Shropshire, Part 7 (1905), Pp.596-7 and Appendix Pp.995-6; Colvin, p.84.

Listing NGR: SJ6128105144

External Links

• Wikidata Q17540223

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Recommended Books

• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)