St Leonard's Church - Stagsden, Bedfordshire, UK
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Dragontree
N 52° 07.879 W 000° 33.980
30U E 666570 N 5778437
St Leonard's Church belongs to the Church of England and has been an Anglican church for many years.
Waymark Code: WMDD7C
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 12/28/2011
Views: 1
Regular services are held here in Stagsden and have been since 1552 when the first records of the church began. The church building dates to 1200.
Bedford Borough Council describes the church:
visit link
'16th to 19th Centuries
The first record of the fabric of Saint Leonard's church after the Middle Ages was in 1552 when it was reported that the church had a lead coated steeple and that the chancel was covered by lead and slate, the church had four bells. The church now has five and three of these date from the 17th century (two from 1652 and one from 1684). In 1668/9 it was reported that the chancel windows needed glass and six years later that the chancel was "out of repair". In 1769 a bell was either recast or added.
19th Century
In 1825 a new communion cup was purchased by the parish. In 1833 Archdeacon Bonney noted that the church was "under thorough repair both internally and externally" and church records show an expenditure of £92 in 1833/4, then a large sum which it can be assumed was caused by some form of construction work. The following year the church was struck by lightning and further repair work followed in 1839 and 1842, one of the bells being recast in 1844.
The main 19th century restoration occurred between 1848 and 1850 when William Stephen was vicar, the builder being Jobson Jackson of Bedford; a sketch of 1850 shows the church roof had been removed. The bells were re-hung in 1856 and the spire may have been restored in the same year. £200 was spent on church repairs in 1870 and about that time a second-hand organ was obtained from Bedford, St.Mary's with a clock being installed in the tower two years later. Two years after that, in 1874, the east window was filled with geometrical glass as a memorial to Charles Bass.
During W.H.Jackson's tenure as vicar a number of improvements and alterations were carried out. Painted texts were added to the walls in 1884 and 1887 and in the latter year new fittings were installed in the sanctuary and chancel. A new brass lectern was purchased in 1895 and the vestry was enlarged the following year.
20th Century
In 1906 a violent hail storm damaged the west windows. In 1908 the church was redecorated internally. The bells were restored in 1932 and furnishings were added to the east end of the south aisle as a chapel dedicated to Madeleine Bonavia Hunt in 1937. Noel Bonavia Hunt, the vicar from 1937 to 1956 was a noted expert in church organs. Stained glass windows were inserted into the windows of the south aisle in 1949/50 and the organ enlarged in 1948 and again in 1977.
Most of the notes on the structural history of the church can be found in greater detail in Bedfordshire Historical Record Society Volume number 79 of 2000 Bedfordshire Churches in the Nineteenth Century: Part III: parishes S to Y, put together by former County Archivist Chris Pickford from numerous sources some held by Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service and some held elsewhere or published.'