St Peter's Church, Leck

St Peter's Church is in the village of Leck, Lancashire, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Tunstall, the archdeaconry of Lancaster and the diocese of Blackburn. Its benefice 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 as a designated Grade II listed building.

St Peter's Church, Leck
St Peter's Church, Leck, from the northwest
St Peter's Church, Leck Location in the City of Lancaster district
OS grid reference	SD 643,766
Location	Leck, Lancashire
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
Website	St Peter, Leck
History
Status	Parish church
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade II
Designated	4 December 1985
Architect(s)	Paley and Austin (1878–79) Austin, Paley and Austin (1915 rebuilding)
Architectural type	Church
Style	Gothic Revival
Specifications
Materials	Sandstone, slate roofs
Administration
Province	York
Diocese	Blackburn
Archdeaconry	Lancaster
Deanery	Tunstall
Parish	Tunstall, Melling and Leck
Clergy
Priest(s)	Revd M. H. Cannon
Curate(s)	Canon Professor R. Hannaford
Laity
Churchwarden(s)	Jane Greenhalgh

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 (equivalent to £390,000 in 2023), 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 rubble with a slate roof. Its plan consists of a nave with a north aisle and a timber south porch, a chancel at a lower level with a vestry on the north side, and a west tower. The tower is in two stages, and is surmounted by a plain parapet and an octagonal slated spire. In the lower stage is a three-light west window containing Perpendicular tracery. 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 arcade divides the nave from the north aisle. The timber roof is open. The sandstone font 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. There is a ring of five bells, all cast in 1914 by John Taylor & Co.

External features

The churchyard contains nineteenth century "fever graves" (those of three girls from the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge). There is also a war grave of a World War II airman.

Gallery

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See also

• Listed buildings in Leck, Lancashire
• List of ecclesiastical works by Paley and Austin
• List of works by Austin, Paley and Austin

References

Sources

• Brandwood, Geoff; Austin, Tim; Hughes, John; Price, James (2012), The Architecture of Sharpe, Paley and Austin, Swindon: English Heritage, ISBN 978-1-84802-049-8
• Hartwell, Clare; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2009) [1969], Lancashire: North, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-12667-9