Jesse Tree: Simeon and Solomon the King
St Leonard, Leverington, Cambridgeshire
ecce positus est hic in ruinam - 'behold, this child is set for the fall' - Luke 2:34
A big church in a sprawling fenland village which belies its remoteness from most of the rest of the county, and its separation from nearby Norfolk by the River Nene. Leverington was missed out of the Domesday Book, even though there was certainly a village and church here at the time. Probably, the Norman scribes had had enough by the time they got to Wisbech of this difficult fenland terrain with its hostile inhabitants.
The church has a lovely stone spire built on to a tower which is very similar to that of Elm, five miles off, possibly based on the motif of the west tower at Ely Cathedral. Friends who have visited every church in the county decided this was their favourite church in all Cambridgeshire, so I was looking forward to it. This is very much in the Early English style, deliciously rough and ready outside. My first sight of the interior was a bit disappointing, as I thought it over-restored - the floors are made neat and the furnishings pitch pine. But very soon this lovely church started to reveal its charms. The sandstone font with seated saints, and most of all a huge collection of 14th and 15th Century glass, more than just about any other church in Cambridgeshire. All in all I thought it was splendid.
Jesse Tree: Simeon and Solomon the King
St Leonard, Leverington, Cambridgeshire
ecce positus est hic in ruinam - 'behold, this child is set for the fall' - Luke 2:34
A big church in a sprawling fenland village which belies its remoteness from most of the rest of the county, and its separation from nearby Norfolk by the River Nene. Leverington was missed out of the Domesday Book, even though there was certainly a village and church here at the time. Probably, the Norman scribes had had enough by the time they got to Wisbech of this difficult fenland terrain with its hostile inhabitants.
The church has a lovely stone spire built on to a tower which is very similar to that of Elm, five miles off, possibly based on the motif of the west tower at Ely Cathedral. Friends who have visited every church in the county decided this was their favourite church in all Cambridgeshire, so I was looking forward to it. This is very much in the Early English style, deliciously rough and ready outside. My first sight of the interior was a bit disappointing, as I thought it over-restored - the floors are made neat and the furnishings pitch pine. But very soon this lovely church started to reveal its charms. The sandstone font with seated saints, and most of all a huge collection of 14th and 15th Century glass, more than just about any other church in Cambridgeshire. All in all I thought it was splendid.