An article written in November 1933:
Sutton Veny Rector Conducts Service In St. Leonard’s Chancel. Interesting Archaeological Facts.
Not far from Colonel Alexander’s home at Sutton Veny stands the only part of the ancient church of St. Leonard’s extant – the chancel.
For generations the grand old church was the worshipping place of the villagers. And even today, 65 years after regular services at the church were disbanded, at the time when the present parish church was opened, worship is still occasionally conducted in the chancel – the one remaining structure to show that a church ever stood on the site.
Annually – on St. Leonard’s Day – a communion service is held in the chancel. St. Leonard’s Day was last Monday, and the Rector of the parish, the Rev. E.A. Chorley and about a dozen villagers, held communion in the chancel.
There are, unfortunately, no official records of the history of the church.
Some two years ago, the Rev. E.C. Long, Rector of St. Olive’s, Exeter, and others of his family, in memory of the relatives whom they lost in the War, erected a new and beautifully-fitted altar in the chancel.
Many of the Rev. E.C. Long’s ancestors are resting in St. Leonard’s Churchyard.
There is no organ at St. Leonard’s today and the drapings are taken down after each occasional service to prevent them from being destroyed in the damp atmosphere.
The late Mr. C.E. Ponting, F.S.A., writing in “The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine” in 1894, states: “Since the fine new church of St. John’s was erected from Mr. Pearson’s designs in 1868, the old church has been allowed to fall into ruins, with the exception of the chancel, which was then enclosed and used as a mortuary chapel; and as the old work is fast disappearing, it seems desirable to place on record some description of it as it exists in 1893.”
The reference to the old work disappearing, however, is not strictly accurate, for steps have been taken to preserve much of the old Norman architecture.
Mr. Ponting points out that the church is cruciform, consisting of nave and chancel with arches at the “crossing,” and north and south transepts.
“In the north wall of the nave,” he writes, “is a good Norman doorway with semi-circular arch with label and a flat lintel under which the jambs are corbelled out. The shafts on the jambs are missing, but the caps remain – these are carved and have square abacus moulds. No other parts of the Norman Church remain, as the earliest walling is of thirteenth century date, when the entire structure appear to have been rebuilt (the Norman doorway remaining in situ). The walls of this period remain in the nave and chancel (with the alterations referred to below) and part of the transepts – they are constructed of rubble, and appear to have begun to subside and incline outwards at a very early period of their existence, for the fourteenth century part of the south transept was built against an already leaning arch.
“The four arches at the crossing are distinctly Early English (circa 1220); three orders of chamfers carried down the jambs, intersected only by an impost moulding, and having interesting stops which show the jambs and arches to be coeval; the bases are splayed. There is no evidence as to whether a tower was carried up over these arches. On the north side of the nave are the splays of two lancet windows, and a trace of one on the south; the chancel retains its three small lancets with labels over on them north, also a flat buttress at the north-east angle returning on the east face, and a coeval doorway on the south, now blocked up. The rubble walling at the east end of the chancel and the thirteenth century string (now intersected by a modern window) show the east window to have been at an unusual height. A chamfered string runs along under the windows on the south side, but there is no plinth to the side walls, this being confined to the quoins.”
The writer goes on to point out that very little of the transepts remain, but that they were probably largely rebuilt late in the 14th century. A doorway of that date inserted in the thirteenth century south wall of the nave and intersecting the string-course, still remains, with a fifteenth century niche over it.
“There is,” says Mr. Ponting, “an old sun-dial on the south-west quoin of the nave.”
In more recent times two buttresses have been erected against the south wall of the nave to serve the same purpose here as the fifteenth century ones added to the north wall.
“A miserable roof,” writes Mr. Ponting, “hipped at the east end , has been put up on the chancel, and the chancel arch built up, with a doorway facing the entrance. The west wall of the nave has been pulled down above the top of the buttresses, and much of the side walls; the wrought stonework of the windows on the north side appear to have been taken away.”