Description

SEMLEY SEMLEY VILLAGE ST 82 NE (south side)

3/184 Church of St. Leonard

GV II

Anglican parish church. 1866-76 rebuilding by T.H. Wyatt, on site of Medieval church. Limestone ashlar, tiled roof. Plan: west tower, nave and south aisle, chancel and south chapel, north porch. Decorated style. Gabled porch has diagonal buttresses, moulded pointed opening with attached shafts with foliated capitals, quatrefoils to sides, coped verges. Nave has 3-light window to right, two 2-light to left; with geometric tracery, buttresses with offsets. Chancel has 2-light, 3-light and single geometric windows, quatrefoil frieze, 3-light geometric east window has hoodmould with foliated terminals, diagonal buttresses, south side has single-light window to right. South chapel has 3-light east windows with hoodmould, angle buttresses, attached vestry has hipped roof with 2-light gablet and porch with pointed chamfered doorway. South aisle has four 2-light Perpendicular-style windows, buttresses, 3-light west window to aisle, set-back buttresses. Five-stage tower has set-back buttresses carried up to gablets at bell stage, string courses, west doorway has moulded pointed opening with attached shafts and aedicule, 4-light geometric window over, gilded clock face to 3rd stage on west and north, single light to south side, bell stage has 2-light louvred windows to all sides, quatrefoil frieze to battlemented parapet with gargoyles. Octagonal stair turret attached to north east corner with roll- moulded pointed doorway and chamfered loopholes to projecting porch to stairs on north side of tower, conical turret roof has gablets with ogee lancets. Interior: Porch has scissor rafter roof, stone benches, moulded pointed inner doorway with double door. Nave has good 4-bay hammer-beam roof with curved windbracing and exposed rafters, plastered walls and polychrome tiled floor. Four-bay south aisle arcade has piers with foliated capitals and moulded pointed arches, arch-braced collar-truss aisle roof with collar trusses to half- bays, organ in west bay. Stair turret projects into west end of nave on corbel, tall pointed tower arch. Chancel arch on short marble corbel shafts with foliated decoration, chancel has ashlar walls and pointed barrel-vaulted ceiling with panelling, Biblical inscriptions to frieze in gothic script, rere-arches to windows. South chapel separated from chancel by pointed door and arch with wrought iron gates and screens, panelled wagon roof, pointed doorway to vestry. Fittings: C19 pews, C12 stone cylindrical font at west end, fine C18 brass candelabra in chancel. Stained glass in north west nave window by F.C. Eden, 1897, south aisle by W.C. Taylor, 1882, good unsigned east window possibly by Lavers and Barraud. Large stone recumbent figure, probably of a bishop in nave, possibly C13, wall tablets include marble to Rev Ralph Ord died 1855 and signed Osmund of Sarum. Rebuilding paid for by Marchioness of Westminster of Fonthill. (N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England, Wiltshire, 1975)

Listing NGR: ST8922226877

External Links

• Wikidata Q26604917

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Recommended Books

• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
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  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
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  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
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  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2