Church and Chapel
The Church of England parish church of Saint Leonard and Saint Catherine existed by 1146, when it was a chapel of the peculier of Dorchester Abbey. The Norman doorways in the north and south walls date fom this time. In the 13th century a transeptal chapel was added on the north side and new windows were inserted in the nave, all in the Early English Gothic style. The bell tower is timber, which is unusual for Oxfordshire. Its oldest bell was originally cast in 1470, which could also be the date that the tower was built. In the 16th century two of the nave windows were enlarged in the Perpendicular Gothic style.
In 1859 the building was drastically restored under the direction of the Gothic Revival architect G.E. Street. The external arch of the Norman south doorway was removed, all tracery was removed from the chancel windows, and a Sanctus bell turret and sundial were removed from the eastern gable of the nave. In 1884 the bell tower was strengthened, shingled and fitted with a clock.
A stained glass portrayal of St Leonard in the lancet window in the north wall of the chancel originates from the middle of the 14th century, but most of the present pieces of its glass date from the 1859 restoration. Ninian Comper and William Bucknall made the stained glass in the three-light east window of the chancel and two-light south-east window of the nave in 1894. The latter is based on a painting by the 15th century Early Netherlandish painter Dirk Bouts in St. Peter's Church, Leuven in Flanders.
In 1552 St. Leonard's was recorded as having three bells. In 1884 when the tower was strengthened, Mears and Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry recast the three original bells and cast three new ones to make the present ring of six.
SS Leonard & Catherine is now a member of the Dorchester Team Ministry.
The Rectory was designed by the architect John Billing and built in 1862.
The first Methodist chapel in Drayton is said to have been built in 1814. It was replaced with a new building on a different site in 1879. The chapel was still used for worship in 1958.
Read more about this topic: Drayton St. Leonard
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