The church of St Leonard's Without is a small chapel built between 1230 and 1240 in the parish of

Kirkstead Kirkstead is an ancient village and former civil parish on the River Witham in Lincolnshire, England. It was merged with the civil parish of Woodhall Spa in 1987. History Kirkstead has its origins in a Cistercian monastery, Kirkstead Abbey (the ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

, close to

Woodhall Spa Woodhall Spa is a former spa Village and civil parish in Lincolnshire, England, on the southern edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds, south-west of Horncastle, west of Skegness, east-south-east of Lincoln and north-west of Boston. It is noted for ...

. The chapel lies close to the now-ruined

Kirkstead Abbey Kirkstead Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery in Kirkstead, Lincolnshire, England. The monastery was founded in 1139 by Hugh Brito, (or Hugh son of Eudo), lord of Tattershall, and was originally colonised by an abbot and twelve monks from Fou ...

founded in 1139. It served as the ''capella ante portas'' (Latin for chapel outside the gates) to the abbey and its name refers to its being "without" (outside) the walls of the

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

. A Grade I listed building, it is an excellent example of the

Early English style English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed ar ...

. Even though measuring only by , it is up to "cathedral standards" of construction. It may well have been built as a

chantry A chantry is an ecclesiastical term that may have either of two related meanings: # a chantry service, a Christian liturgy of prayers for the dead, which historically was an obiit, or # a chantry chapel, a building on private land, or an area in ...

chapel in memory of Robert de Tattershall, who died in 1212. After use for many centuries as a church, it closed in 1877, when a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

congregation was evicted. From 1883 the

Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) (also known as Anti-Scrape) is an amenity society founded by William Morris, Philip Webb, and others in 1877 to oppose the destructive 'restoration' of ancient buildings occurring in ...

fought to save it from total decay. Eventually during 1913 and 1914, it was restored by the architect William Weir.

References

External links

*
Kirkstead, St Leonard's Church
at the ''Britain Express'' website Church of England church buildings in Lincolnshire East Lindsey District Grade I listed buildings in Lincolnshire 13th-century church buildings in England {{England-church-stub

See also

References

External links