St Leonard's Church is an Anglican church in the village of

Apethorpe Apethorpe (pronounced "Ap-thorp") is a village, civil parish,

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

, England. It is an active

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activitie ...

in the Diocese of Peterborough. It has been designated a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

History

The church at Apethorpe dates mostly from the 14th or 15th century, although there may have been an earlier structure on the site. A chapel and tower were added in the 17th century and the tower was

restored ''Restored'' is the fourth studio album by American contemporary Christian music musician Jeremy Camp. It was released on November 16, 2004 by BEC Recordings. Track listing Standard release Enhanced edition Deluxe gold edition Standard ...

in the 19th century. The church was designated a Grade I

on 23 May 1967. The Grade I listing is for buildings "of exceptional interest, sometimes considered to be internationally important".

Architecture

Exterior

The church is constructed of coursed limestone with

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitr ...

dressings; the roofs are lead. Its plan consists of a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-typ ...

with north and south

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parl ...

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. ...

, a west tower, a chapel to the south and a south porch. The tower is of three stages, without

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral ( ...

es. It has a

battlement A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at inter ...

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). ...

and is topped with an octagonal

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

. The north and south aisles, are both of three

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a nar ...

s; both the aisles and the south chapel are supported by two-stage buttresses between each window.

Interior and fittings

The nave has a three-bay arcade with double- chamfered arches. There is an arch to the tower, which is chamfered and moulded. The chancel contains a carved corbel and the

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

and

baptismal font A baptismal font is an article of church furniture used for baptism. Aspersion and affusion fonts The fonts of many Christian denominations are for baptisms using a non-immersive method, such as aspersion (sprinkling) or affusion (pouring) ...

, which date from the 18th century. The south chapel contains a large marble monument to Sir

Anthony Mildmay Sir Anthony Mildmay (died 1617) of Apethorpe Palace, Northamptonshire, served as a Member of Parliament for Wiltshire from 1584 to 1586 and as English ambassador in Paris in 1597. Origins Mildmay was the eldest son of Sir Walter Mildmay ( ...

(d. 1617) and his wife Lady Grace Mildmay (d. 1620), an

effigy An effigy is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certai ...

to Sir Richard Dalton (d. 1442) and a 19th-century marble monument to John Arthur Fane, the infant son of Lord Burghersh.

Churchyard

The churchyard contains a c. 14th century limestone ashlar cross and an 18th-century limestone ashlar

chest tomb Funerary art is any work of art forming, or placed in, a repository for the remains of the dead. The term encompasses a wide variety of forms, including cenotaphs ("empty tombs"), tomb-like monuments which do not contain human remains, and comm ...

, both of which have been given a Grade II listing by English Heritage.

History

Architecture

Exterior

Interior and fittings

Churchyard

References

Footnotes

Sources

Further reading