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Description

LEADENHAM MAIN ROAD SK 95 SE (west side) 4/15 Church of St Swithin 23.8.67 GV I Parish church. C13. C14. C15. 1841 and C20. Limestone ashlar with lead roofs, coped gables with cross finials, moulded parapet with octagonal corner pinnacles to east of nave and chancel. Gabled angle buttresses with set-offs. Moulded and chamfered double plinth. All openings have hood moulds and label stops. West tower and spire, nave with aisles and porches, chancel and north vestry. Tower, 4-stage, with moulded stage bands. West face has small 4- centred arched doorway with a large 3-light plate tracery pointed arched win- dow above. Above again a small lancet. The north and south faces of the first 2 stages are blank. The third stage has pairs of blind arches to each face, those on the south and west sides being unequal. The fourth stage has flour, 2-light ogee headed recessed and chamfered late C14 bell openings, with plate tracery. Above a battlemented parapet with gargoyles and pinnacles lopped with a C15 crocketed spire with 3 sets of alternating lucarnes. The north aisle has a 3-light, reticulated tracery, pointed arched west window. The north gabled porch has diagonal buttresses with set-offs, and it is topped with a parapet decorated with shields and gargoyles on the side walls. The entrance has a moulded 4-centred arched, chamfered opening with a small niche above. The interior has stone benches, the inner doorway has a chamfered and moulded, pointed arch with a niche above included within a gable, decorated with crockets which rises into the porch roof, and which has large head label stops. The north aisle has two C14, four-light windows with reticulated tracery in, segmental recessed and chamfered arches. The east wall has a similar 5-light windows, and the clerestory has 3 similar 2-light windows on each side. The chancel has a single north window of 3 lights, in a 4-centred arch. In the angle between the chancel and vestry is a battlemented stair turret with 2 small lancets. The C19 gabled vestry has a single 2-light north window in a 4-centred arch, and a single 3-light similar east window. The chancel has a large 4-light east windows in a pointed arch with very unusual tracery, made up of 3 roughly triangular panels. The south wall has two 3- light windows in recessed 4-centred arches. The south aisle has a 5-light reticulated tracery, segmental arched window to the east,and 2 similar 4-light windows to the south, and a 3-light plate tracery, pointed arched window to the west. The shallow gabled south porch has a moulded parapet, angle but- tresses, and a moulded and chamfered 4-centred arched opening with single shaft responds. The interior has a 3-bay nave arcades with compound keeled piers and responds supporting finely moulded pointed arches. The chancel and tower arches are similar. The openings for the rood stair survive in the south-east corner of the nave. The nave roof is largely C19, with original C14 timbers. There is an ogee headed piscina in the chancel, and another in the north aisle. The C19 chancel roof was hand painted by A W N Pugin in 1841. C19 mosaic reredos. C19 wooden pews. C19 marble pulpit and wood and iron altar rail. In the chancel floor are 2 brasses to Elizabeth Beresford 1624 and to Margaret Beresford 1635. On the east wall a C17 high relief Beresford coat of arms, and on the north wall a plaque topped by a coat of arms to Charles Beresford 1716. There are 2 wall tablets to Ellis Key 1756 and William Key 1752 on the west wall of the south aisle, there is another monu- ment to Lady Jane Sherard 1856 on the south wall in low relief of a lady weeping over an urn. In the north aisle a similar monument to Frances Welby `1858 and 2 Gothic monuments to General John Reeve 1864 and William Reeve 1820. Listing NGR: SK9504151746

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