Birdingbury - St Leonard
St Leonard's at Birdingbury is a real surprise, a small and simple building set on a hillside amidst beautiful scenery. It can easily be missed, being set back and slightly downhill from the village road the ample lychgate is the main indication it is there. Peering through it at first sight it looks more like something out of Bavaria than rural Warwickshire with it's tiny cupola and facade, or perhaps a very unusual cemetery chapel rather than a parish church. The facade with it's pediment and pilasters initially suggests more of the same date behind it.
However first impressions can be misleading, and this is no exception, as this tiny Georgian building did get a very thorough Victorian makeover in 1873, which involved a new apse at the east end, a steeper-pitched nave roof (uncomfortably abutting the octagonal belfry of the cupola and dwarfing it in the process and spoiling the proportions of the old part generally) and the complete remodelling of the nave windows, transforming them in pairs of Gothic lancets in place of the presumably square headed single light openings of the Georgian period. All this is revealed as one walks around the building, only the west end remains as originally built and unspoilt.
The only entry is via the west door and through a tiny, cubicle-like space under the tower the interior is revealed and appears far more Victorian than the exterior suggests. The nave retains it's original box pews, pulpit and elegant baluster font, despite the windows being gothicised, but everything beyond the traceried wooden chancel screen is pure Victorian gothic, not unattractive but quirky rather than beautiful, a strange mixture of the work of two very different centuries.
The polygonal apse, largely obscured until one passes through the screen, is the visual climax of the building and is surprisingly rich for such a small church, with it's cheerfully painted ceiling, adorned with figures of Christ and adoring angels, and full complement of stained glass. The arcading below the cill on the south side is also very fine, in all quite a bizarre contrast with the plainer earlier parts.
The polygonal apse, largely obscured until one passes through the screen, is the visual climax of the building and is surprisingly rich for such a small church, with it's cheerfully painted ceiling, adorned with figures of Christ and adoring angels, and full complement of stained glass. The arcading below the cill on the south side is also very fine, in all quite a bizarre contrast with the plainer earlier parts.
The stained glass is concentrated in the apse and the two windows on each side closest to it. The apse is five sided and has three narrative windows with scenes from Christ's Passion at the centre, flanked by attractive ornamental glazing in the two less visible outer windows. The glass is probably either early work by the London firm of Heaton, Butler & Bayne, Clayton & Bell, and the adjoining south window showing Christ & followers against a red sky appears to have come from the same studio.
The north window is clearly different, being by John Hardman Studios of Birmingham c1880, and depicts four scenes from the life of St Leonard.
The north window is clearly different, being by John Hardman Studios of Birmingham c1880, and depicts four scenes from the life of St Leonard.
Birdingbury church won't delay the visitor for long, but it is unusually designed and delightfully picturesque, and always seems to be kept open and welcoming, thus will always reward making a stop.
Aidan McRae Thomson 2012
Aidan McRae Thomson 2012
