St Peter's Church is in the village of
Leck,
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...
, England. It is an active
Anglican
Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), 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 com ...
in the deanery of Tunstall, the archdeaconry of Lancaster and the
diocese of Blackburn. Its
benefice
A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...
is united with those of
St Wilfrid, Melling,
St John the Baptist, Tunstall,
St James the Less, Tatham, the
Good Shepherd, Lowgill, and
Holy Trinity, Wray, to form the benefice of East Lonsdale.
The church is recorded in the
National Heritage List for England
The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...
as a designated Grade II
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 ...
.
History
The first church on the site was built in 1610; it was a small single-storeyed building. In 1825 it was extended and a small tower was added.
[ The present church was built in 1878–79, and was designed by the Lancaster architects Paley and Austin. It cost £3,000 (), and provided seating for 224 people. The church was damaged by fire in October 1913 and rebuilt by 1915 at a cost of about £5,000, it is said accurately to the original design, by Austin, Paley and Austin the successors in the Lancaster practice, Austin and Paley.]
Architecture
Exterior
The church is constructed in sandstone
Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...
rubble
Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionar ...
with a slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...
roof. 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-type ...
with a north aisle
An aisle is a linear space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, in buildings such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parliaments, courtrooms, ...
and a timber south porch, a chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...
at a lower level with a vestry
A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...
on the north side, and a west tower. The tower is in two stages, and is surmounted by a plain parapet
A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a 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/brea ...
and an octagonal slated spire. In the lower stage is a three-light west window containing Perpendicular
In geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at right angles, i.e. at an angle of 90 degrees or π/2 radians. The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the '' perpendicular symbol'', � ...
tracery
Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support th ...
. The upper stage contains single-light bell openings. Along the south wall of the nave are four-light windows, and the chancel wall contains windows of three lights and one light. The east window has eight lights.[
]
Interior
Inside the church a five-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, ci ...
arcade divides the nave from the north aisle. The timber roof is open. The sandstone font
In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design.
For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...
is octagonal.[ Much of the stained glass survived the fire,][ and it was reinstated by Powells who used Henry Holiday's original drawings.][ The original organ was built some time between 1850 and 1881 by Henry Jones. The present two- manual organ was built in 1915 by ]Harrison & Harrison
Harrison & Harrison Ltd is a British company based in Durham that makes and restores pipe organs. It was established in Rochdale in 1861. It is well known for its work on instruments such as King's College, Cambridge, Westminster Abbey, and t ...
. There is a ring
(The) Ring(s) may refer to:
* Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry
* To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell
Arts, entertainment, and media Film and TV
* ''The Ring'' (franchise), a ...
of five bells, all cast in 1914 by John Taylor & Co
John Taylor Bell Foundry (Loughborough) Limited, trading as John Taylor & Co and commonly known as Taylor's Bell Foundry, Taylor's of Loughborough, or simply Taylor's, is the world's largest working bell (instrument), bell foundry. It is locat ...
.
External features
The churchyard contains nineteenth century "fever graves" (those of three girls from the Clergy Daughters' School
The Cowan Bridge School was a Clergy Daughters' School, founded in 1824, at Cowan Bridge in the English county of Lancashire. It was mainly for the daughters of middle class clergy and attended by the Brontë sisters. In the 1830s it moved to ...
at Cowan Bridge). There is also a war grave of a World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
airman
An airman is a member of an air force or air arm of a nation's armed forces. In certain air forces, it can also refer to a specific enlisted rank. An airman can also be referred to as a soldier in other definitions. As a military rank designat ...
.
Gallery
St Peter's Church, Leck (England) 1.jpg
St Peter's Church, Leck (England) 2.jpg
St Peter's Church, Leck (England) 3.jpg
St Peter's Church, Leck, Lancashire England.jpg
St Peter's Church, Leck, Lancashire England 2.jpg
St Peter's Church, Leck, Lancashire England 3.jpg
See also
* Listed buildings in Leck, Lancashire
* List of ecclesiastical works by Paley and Austin
* List of works by Austin, Paley and Austin
References
Citations
Sources
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leck, St Peter's Church
Diocese of Blackburn
Church of England church buildings in Lancashire
Grade II listed churches in Lancashire
Paley and Austin buildings
Austin and Paley buildings
Gothic Revival church buildings in England
Gothic Revival architecture in Lancashire
Churches in the City of Lancaster