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

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26604917

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback