Church Heritage Record 605015

4-bay nave and chancel with north aisle. Connected to the original church, latterly church hall, by a passage from the north-west corner encompassing former vestries converted to WCs. The current church has a west gallery with lobby beneath, and north-east vestry.

[Approximate] Nave 12m (40ft) x 10m (33ft) wide, chancel 7m (23ft) x 10m (33ft) wide, aisle 4m (13ft) wide.

Today’s church of St Leonard was designed and built by Salisbury based architect Robert Potter 1937-38, though one of his early, pre-war works, he went on to become a well-recognised church architect and Surveyor to the Fabric of St Paul’s Cathedral.

Until a building was constructed services took place in a disused baker’s loft on Blackswarth Road. In 1907, Bristol architect W V Gough designed a temporary church on the site, orientated north-south (originally dedicated to SS Peter and Paul, rededicated to St Leonard in 1925 when the district was also constituted as a parish). High attendance led to proposals for a separate, permanent, church building, but progress was stalled by the onset of WWI.

A R Gough, the elder Gough’s son, designed a temporary hall east of the original church in the 1920s. This has since been demolished. A vicarage was built in 1925.

A competition for designs for a new church was held by the Wessex branch of the RIBA. Potter’s design won, although it underwent some changes to reduce costs during the construction process. A corridor was built to attach to the north of the new built, becoming a church hall. The foundation stone for the new church was laid in the south-west buttress in 1938 (inscription now worn) with three additional consecration stones including a dated stone within the interior east wall. The church was built within six months and was designed to seat 330. The fittings were designed by Potter in oak in keeping with the simple lines of his church design.

The archaeological potential of the site is low although there are local environment records for the area and post-medieval finds within a short distance of the site. There are no known designations relating to the ecology of the plot, but the garden has some value as a secluded green space.

St Leonard’s, viewed from the south-west, has a pleasing, simple, Art and Crafts or even Voysey-esque quality to it. The rendered elevations on brick plinths, shallow square-headed windows, low eaves, round-arched west door, and slightly flared angle buttresses contribute to this.

The church consists of a nave and chancel in one with a continuous pitch-roof and flat-roofed north aisle hidden by a brick parapet. The roof was originally clad in copper, now felt. An octagonal copper-clad bell turret (contains a single bell), with surmounting gilded cross, is fixed to the west end of the nave roof.

Attached to the north by a flat-roofed passage is the older hall, the former church. The link has an open arcade facing east into the garden creating a cloister effect, and either side of a doorway to the west are male and female WCs. The hall survives largely in its original form, except the interior south end (liturgical east) has had a stage inserted. 3-light windows pierce the west elevation facing Blackswarth Road. The roof is of tie beams resting on low corbels. It has a now unusable kitchen and side rooms.

The gabled west front of the church has steps leading up to the central round-arched doorway set within a deep unmoulded recess. Small square windows are positioned to either side and a long single-light window is above. There are angle buttresses only. The south elevation has four-light square-headed windows with stone mullions containing clear rectangular leaded panes. The north aisle is similar. At the east end a slightly projecting porch provides access to the vestry.

The interior would have been accessed from the west door, or the north door leading into the passageway. It is now primarily accessed via the north-east vestry. A shallow lobby area within the west door leads into the four-bay nave. It is a broad, light, airy space, which opens into the north aisle through wide, plain round-arched arcades. Key features such as doors, roof timbers, coving and balcony, are picked out in green paint, as they are also on the exterior.

The nave is ceiled by a barrel-shaped roof, with the uppermost section slightly recessed. Raised timber ribs, painted green, provide accents. Original circular light-fittings with candle-shaped bulbs are suspended from the ceiling. The walls are plastered and painted and there are wall-mounted radiators. The floor is of level pine wood-blocks, and carpet has been laid over the aisles. The entire space is seated with wood chairs with a pair of staves located in the centre of the nave dated 1959. Surplus chairs are stacked with bookcases in the south-west corner.

At the west end a narrow balcony, almost entirely taken up by the organ pipes, blocks the east window. Access is by stairs from the baptistery. Green painted grid-like woodwork either end of the balcony is recorded as the remnants of built-in sound units from the original organ.

The north aisle has shallower windows than those in the south wall. The aisle has an arch at the west end marking out the Baptistery space with the font raised on a stone step. A north door leads to the linking corridor. A coffee point has been arranged in the centre of the aisle. At the east end is an area arranged as a Lady Chapel with an altar raised by a step and a curtain behind it and the vestry beyond that.

At the east end of the building, plain oak choir frontals form a set with the choir stalls, pulpit, communion rails, hymn board and lectern. They are of a clean lined design with pleasant curves and a modern linenfold effect. The chancel is raised by a step and paved with artificial buff-colour stone floor tiles. There is another step to the sanctuary and the altar is raised by a further two steps. The Sanctuary has a stone sedilia set in the south wall and a consecration stone in the east wall to the north of the altar. The east window has scrolled ironwork at the top of each light.