Description

LEEK

SJ9856NE FOUNTAIN STREET
611-1/5/64 (North side)
07/06/72 Church of St Luke

GV II*

Parish church. 1848, tower added 1854 and chancel extended
1873. By Frederick and Horace Francis.
MATERIALS: Coursed and squared stone with Welsh slate roofs
with ridge-cresting.
PLAN: W tower, nave with 2 aisles, chancel with vestries.
EXTERIOR: massive 3-stage W tower, with heavy stair-turret
projecting at SW corner, and massive angle buttresses. W door
up steps, engaged shafts to moulded archway. 3-light window
over doorway, and triple bell chamber lights in upper stage.
Traceried high parapet, with central panels carrying statues
of saints on eagle corbels.
Aisles of 5 bays divided by buttresses; 3 and 2-light
Decorated windows with reticulated tracery, and gabled porch
with engaged shafts to moulded arch to S. Storeyed gabled
vestry E of N aisle. 5-light Decorated E window to chancel,
which is heavily buttressed, the buttresses with crocketed
gablets carried on corbel heads. 2 high level 2-light windows
in S of chancel, with continuous cill band. Small doorway
(blocked internally) to S.
INTERIOR: 5-bay arcade with octagonal piers carrying triple
chamfered arches with corbel heads. Steep arch-braced roof
with wall-posts sprung from corbels to principal trusses.
Steep arch to tower, filled with glazed traceried screen added
in 1949. Clustered shaft with foliate capitals to chancel
arch. Steep, closely spaced arch-braced trusses to chancel
roof, boarded over sanctuary.
Rich decorative scheme to chancel: openwork timber screen,
with triangular central arch flanked by segmental arches with
foiled tracery, angels on newel posts, and rich vine-scroll
decoration to canopy. Richly worked wall-panelling, linen fold
with low-relief tracery to sanctuary. Integral sedilia to S
reredos by JD Sedding, 1874: outer traceried panels with
low-relief sculptures in upper panels. High reliefs to either
side of central traceried panel representing the Nativity and
Resurrection, flanked by saints in niches; painted stone.
Panelling enriched with low-relief lilies etc. to case of
Jardine organ (organ 1861, case 1903). Encaustic tiles to
sanctuary. Choir stalls probably also c1874, with angels
carved on bench ends.
STAINED GLASS: the work of several different artists in

different stylistic idioms; S aisle and lady chapel: medieval
style with small narrative emblems in richly coloured ground,
1860 and 1862, by Warrington; pictorial style, 1890;
Pre-Raphaelite style, 1884, Powell. Chancel S window pictorial
memorial window, said to have been worked from a photograph. E
window by Wailes; medieval style, with pictorial emblems. N
aisle, pictorial windows, one dated 1891, unsigned.
HISTORICAL NOTE: the church was richly endowed by a number of
prominent local families, and several of its notable fittings
were provided as memorials to some of their members.
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Staffordshire:
Harmondsworth: 170).

Listing NGR: SJ9881956558

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17531774

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)