Parish Church of St Edward the Confessor

Details

LEEK

SJ9856NW CHURCH STREET 611-1/4/36 (North side) 13/04/51 Parish Church of St Edward The Confessor (Formerly Listed as: CHURCH STREET Parish Church of St Edward)

GV II*

Parish church. Parts of the fabric possibly late C13, but substantially later with some C15-C16 work including fenestration of aisles, and 2 C19 restorations, the first by Ewan Christian, then a major restoration and rebuilding of the chancel by Street in 1867. MATERIALS: roughly coursed and squared rubble with leaded and banded slate roofs. W tower, nave with 2 short aisles and clerestory, chancel. STYLE: W tower has C14 W door but is largely Perpendicular. EXTERIOR: 2 stages with clasping buttresses and embattled parapet with corbels and angle pinnacles. High lower stage with Decorated W door, and 2-light Decorated window recut in C19 above. Clock on S face. Paired bell chamber lights in upper stage. Lozenge frieze below embattled parapet. S porch dated 1670 with flat roof and embattled parapet, and Mannerist decoration to heavy voussoirs of round-headed archway. Aisles occupy the eastern length of the nave only (earlier full-length aisles possibly truncated during the C16). Fenestration of surviving aisles suggests a C15 date, but the fabric may be earlier, and a blocked round-arched doorway in the N aisle may also indicate an earlier date. C16 clerestory with 4-paired trefoiled lights in eastern section of nave over aisles. W of the S porch, windows on 2 storeys indicating gallery within. S aisle has shallow gabled roof with embattled parapet, probably C16. To the north, changes in the masonry suggest that western end of nave has been raised in height. Its upper windows are C19 and square-headed, with wide lancet windows below, probably of earlier date. N porch added 1838 against the W wall of the N aisle. Massive buttressing to N aisle, with blocked door towards the west. 3-light window with simple geometric tracery, and rose window towards east. E wall of aisle has wide 5-light Decorated window. Chancel with lean-to vestry to south. Remains of medieval masonry visible in N wall which also clearly reveals that

Street's rebuilding represented an extension of the length of the original chancel. Big 5-light E window in a Decorated style. Chancel chapel or organ chamber to S, with 3-light window set high in E wall, S doorway and 3-light window with hoodmould forming continuous string course. 3-bay S aisle with porch towards W end, rose window to E, and central 3-light window. Sundial over rose window dated 1815. INTERIOR: nave arcade of 3 bays towards E only. These truncated aisles themselves were of 4 bays until the early C19. Western end of nave filled by a late C18 or early C19 gallery (shown on a plan of 1816) raked back to E wall of tower, carried on wood Doric columns, and approached by stairs to the S. Western bay of nave below gallery, and base of tower itself now screened off to form meeting rooms etc. Octagonal piers to nave arcade (early C19 replacements of earlier cylindrical piers), and double chamfered arches. Engaged shafts sprung from corbels to chancel arch. C16 nave roof restored c1856 by Ewan Christian, with deep panels between moulded principals, purlins and ridge, with bosses at their intersections. Wide N aisle forms separate chapel with early C20 dado panelling and reredos. Blocked round-arched N doorway. Stained glass in E window of chapel dated 1878; Morris and Co.; rose window to N also with glass by Morris and Co. Brass set into E wall, 1597, John Ashenburst and his 4 wives. S aisle narrower than the north, with Morris and Co. glass in E window, and in the rose window which is a memorial to Dame Elizabeth Wardle, d1902. Wall memorial to members of the Bulkeley family, early C18. Marble font in S aisle dated 1867; octagonal with heavily recessed panels with inlaid reliefs depicting the baptism and its Old Testament precursors. Low marble screen to chancel, which has encaustic tiled floor and barrel vaulted panelled ceiling. Enriched timber pulpit, octagonal and corbelled out from a narrow base; canopied niches in each face carry statues carved by Earpe to designs of Street. Cast-iron screen in stone tracery filling 2-bay arcade to organ chamber to S. Cast-iron and brass altar rails. Marble reredos with central inlaid cross and figures of saints in canopied niches each side. Simpler marble wall panelling continues across sanctuary. The fittings all designed by Street. Windows have stained glass possibly by Clayton and Bell, the colours now badly faded. Similar glass in S window of S aisle chapel. The church is also notable for its examples of the work of the Leek School of Embroidery, including altar frontals and an embroidered panel depicting part of the Hierarchy of Angels.

(Meeson R: Parish Church of St Edward, Leek).

Listing NGR: SJ9832556630

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

461611

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Meeson, R, Parish Church of St Edward Leek, ()

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