St Leonard's Church, Sutton Veny

St Leonard's Church
St Leonard's Church, Sutton Veny is located in Wiltshire
St Leonard's Church, Sutton Veny
Location within Wiltshire
51°10′22″N 2°07′57″W / 51.17278°N 2.13250°W / 51.17278; -2.13250
LocationSutton Veny, Wiltshire, England
History
Built12th century
Listed Building – Grade II
Official name
Church of St. Leonard
Designated11 September 1968[1]
Reference no.1036423

St Leonard's Church in Sutton Veny, Wiltshire, England, was built in the 12th century. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a Grade II listed building,[1] and is now a redundant church in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.[2] It was declared redundant on 28 May 1970, and was vested in the Trust on 27 October 1971.[3]

The cruciform church was started in the 12th century and revised in the 13th and 16th centuries,[1] and underwent a major restoration in 1831. It was originally linked to the Priory Church of St Mary, Abergavenny.[4] Subsidence because of low-lying damp ground caused further damage, which had been repaired by the addition of buttresses in the 14th and 15th century,[4] and by 1866 the decision was made to build a new church. This was dedicated to St John the Evangelist, designed by John Loughborough Pearson and built on higher ground 700 yards (640 m) to the north-west, opening in 1868.[4]

Only the chancel remains in usable condition and was used as a mortuary chapel; it contains benefaction boards, a bier, a font, and a bell, and there are memorials on the walls.[2] The nave, transepts and crossing are ruined, and among the ruins stands a 12th-century doorway, possibly repositioned.[5][4]

There are two yew trees south east of the church. One which is now largely decayed has a girth of 14 feet 10 inches (4.52 m); it is not known how large it was when the tree was healthy.[6]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Historic England, "Church of St Leonard, Sutton Veny (1036423)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 15 January 2014
  2. 1 2 St Leonard's Church, Sutton Veny, Wiltshire, Churches Conservation Trust, retrieved 15 April 2020
  3. ↑ Diocese of Salisbury: All Schemes (PDF), Church Commissioners/Statistics, Church of England, 2011, p. 10, retrieved 31 March 2011
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Sutton Veny In: A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 8, Warminster, Westbury and Whorwellsdown Hundreds.", British History Online, Victoria County History, retrieved 4 September 2016
  5. ↑ "St Leonard, Sutton Veny, Wiltshire". The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland. King's College London. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
  6. ↑ Hills, Tim, "St Leonard's Old Church" (PDF), Ancient Yews, retrieved 4 September 2016

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