The Church of St Leonard in

Marston Bigot Marston Bigot is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Trudoxhill in the Somerset district, in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. It is near Nunney and south of Frome. In 1931 the parish had a population of 11 ...

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, England, was built by Edmund Boyle, 7th Earl of Cork and Orrery, to replace an earlier church on another site which he had had demolished for spoiling the view from Marston House. It opened to the public in 1789. It has been designated as a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. It is dedicated to

Leonard of Noblac Leonard of Noblac (also Leonard of Limoges or Leonard of Noblet; also known as Lienard, Linhart, Lenart, Leonhard, Léonard, Leonardo, Annard; died 559) is a Franks, Frankish saint closely associated with the town and abbey of Saint-Léonard-de- ...

. The

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-type ...

has three bays with semi-circular headed windows with heavily enriched surrounds and an elaborate

hammerbeam roof A hammerbeam roof is a decorative, open timber roof truss typical of English Gothic architecture and has been called "the most spectacular endeavour of the English Medieval carpenter". They are traditionally timber framed, using short beams proj ...

. The stained glass in the east window dates from the 15th century and is from

Altenberg Abbey Altenberg Abbey (''Abtei Altenberg'') () is a former Cistercian monastery in Altenberg, now a part of the municipality of Odenthal in the Bergisches Land, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. History The abbey was founded in 1133 as a daughter ...

near

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, Germany. It depicts a scene from the early life of St Bernard, the driving force of the

Cistercian The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...

order. It has a tower containing a ring of eight bells, overhauled in 2003. The church was altered in 1844 by the architect Edward Davis. Henry Waldegrave, 11th Earl Waldegrave, was rector of the village from 1905–12, and lived in the rectory, which is also a listed building.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marston Bigot, Church of St Leonard Churches completed in 1789 Grade I listed churches in Somerset Church of England church buildings in Mendip District Grade I listed buildings in Mendip District 1789 establishments in England

See also

References