Roman Catholic Church Of St Leonard And St Mary, And Churchyard Wall

Late C12 origins with C15 tower and C19 spire , extensive restoration and rebuilding 1907.

The windows are C15 in style, being in the form of groups of two and three lancets with 4-centred heads, each group set beneath a square-headed hoodmould.

Towards the east end there is a vestry door set in a C15 style surround.

Tower: this is of four stages, the C15 lower three stages being marked by heavily eroded stonework, the later work (repairs, diagonal buttresses and the top stage) being crisp.

Set above this is a heavily eroded carved panel of early C13 or earlier, depicting a bishop standing on the heads of two snakes.

The medieval tower arch is of three hollow chamfered orders, the inner springing from carved corbels in the form of green man masks.

The chancel has a timber wagon roof with carved bosses.

Medieval sculpture: in addition to the tower arch corbels there are a further 23 pieces of figurative medieval sculpture within the church.

Most appear to have originally been corbels, but there are also a number of voussoirs as well as one carved panel.

A number are dated stylistically to the second half of the C12 (including the panel

the first and last corbel heads), some possibly being C13.

Stained Glass: there are four stained glass windows: the main east window, being a First World War memorial

and, reset in a timber screen infilling the tower arch, a window depicting Our Lady within a mandorla which was brought from the Roman Catholic chapel of St Marys, Well Lane, Malton.

SE7871 : St Leonard's Roman Catholic Church, Malton

© Neil Theasby

Memorials: there are at least 14 wall mounted memorials in the church mainly dating to before the mid-C19.

The earliest is a timber hatchment with the Royal Coat of Arms of George I: dated 1716, this probably marks the defeat of the First Jacobite Rebellion.

The rest are stone or marble except for an iron and bronze memorial, featuring dolphins and Tuscan columns, to Arthur Gibson, a Malton brass and iron founder who died in 1837.

Fittings: Plain tub font, probably C12, sited at the west end of the north aisle.

Reset in the south wall of the chancel is a C15 piscina.

The use of Hildenley limestone suggests that the wall is likely to be pre-C18 in date, potentially late medieval.

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register.