St Leonard In The Wood

MATERIALS: Built of stone rubble with tile-hanging to top of tower and tiled roof.

EXTERIOR: The west wall of the nave is of medieval stone rubble with a projecting central buttress.

West tower of two stages, the upper stage tile-hung and with pyramidal roof with weathervane.

The north wall of the nave is of medieval origin but is now concealed externally by the 1970s parish hall.

The north wall of the nave has a pointed arched doorway and a plain medieval piscina which may have been moved from the south wall of the nave.

There is a C19 octagonal stone font with wooden cover with decorative brasswork, a large Pyrenean marble pulpit with pilasters and multi-coloured patterned marble inlay and 1860s pews.

A brass candelabra was taken from a Russian church during the Crimean War.

There are stained glass windows of 1872 to the north nave of Mary and Elizabeth, the presentation to the Temple, and the bringing of the children to Jesus.

The west window is a war memorial window depicting Christ and a man in armour.

The chancel also has a C19 scissor-braced roof, C19 choir stalls with quatrefoil cut-outs to the fronts and alternate plain and floral tiles to the floor.

The sanctuary has a C19 double stoone sedilia with pointed arches an colonnettes and patterned tiles with floral and circular motifs.

There is an elaborate wooden reredos with side panels donated circa 1890 by the widow of David Henry Stone of Castelham, a former Lord Mayor of London, and a Gothic style carved organ case of 1912.

The east window is by a Brussels firm, Capronnier, of 1873 depicting the Risen Christ and miracles, above the figures C20 clear glass with leaded lights.

There are also stained glass windows depicting Charity, dated 1875, in the north wall and Faith and Hope, of 1886, in the south wall.

HISTORY: There is a tradition that there was a hermit's chapel on the site in the C11.

However, the earliest documentary reference to a chapel on this site is in the charter of benediction granted to Count Henry of Ely, who died in 1139, in which a reference is made to an earlier charter granted to his grandfather Robert, who died in 1090, mentioning a chapel at Hollington.

In the middle of the C13 the chapel was replaced by a church, and a vicar was appointed by one of the prebends of St Mary in the Castle, who held the patronage.

The names of the first vicars are not known until 1344, when John of Leveryngton exchanged benefices with Robert Brok of All Saints Church, Hastings.

A bell in the tower is believed to be the work of William Burford and was cast between 1371 and 1392 in his London foundry.

STATEMENT OF IMPORTANCE: A C13 stone church on an earlier, possibly Anglo-Saxon site, retaining some medieval wall fabric and the upper part of the tower, but otherwise comprehensively restored in 1865 in Early English style and retaining a little altered later C19 interior.

This List entry has been amended to add the source for War Memorials Online.