Building record 0103700000 - ST LEONARD'S CHURCH, GRENDON UNDERWOOD

Dimensions - Length 31m, Width 9m.
Nave, chancel, W tower 53ft high, 15ft sq. Ancient font, pierced wood chancel screen (B1-2).
Stone rubble, ashlar facings. Nave probably C12, S doorway (of special interest) inserted c.1220. Chancel rebuilt c.1310, W tower C15. N vestry modern, S porch destroyed. Restored 1866 & 1902 (full description)(B3-4).
At NGR (B6).
Plan (B7).
Grade II+. Parish church. C12-C13 nave with early C13 S. door and C15 alterations, late C13-early C14 chancel, C15 W. tower, restored 1866 and 1902. Coursed rubble stone, the nave partly with slobbered rendering. Lead roofs to nave and tower, tiled chancel. W. tower of 2 stages has moulded plinth, battlemented parapet, diagonal buttresses and stair turret at S.E. corner. 2-light traceried openings to bell chamber with small cusped windows below to N. and S. W. side has 3-light cusped window and door in 4-centred arch with cusped spandrels. Nave has moulded ashlar parapet, moulded plinth to part of S. wall and off-set buttresses. 2 2-light windows to N., one with Y tracery, the other with cusped lights. S. wall mostly rebuilt C15 with 2 3-light windows. Early C13 S. doorway, much worn, has moulded arch, the outer order with fragments of elaborate fleurons and stiff leaf capitals, the shafts missing. Hoodmould with worn carved head stops, wrought iron lamp bracket above. Chancel has 3 windows with Y tracery to S., one to N., and C19 5-light traceried window to E. Early C20 N. vestry. Interior: moulded tower arch. C15 nave roof with moulded purlins and tie beams, the tie beams on curved braces with cusped tracery in spandrels. Cusped piscina in S. wall. Continuously double chamfered arch to chancel. Chancel has moulded sill course and window arches. Large cusped piscina with finials, the left finial removed to make way for monument. Fittings: C15 octagonal font, reworked; early C17 hexagonal pulpit with arcaded panels; other fittings C19. Monuments: marble wall monument to John Pigott of Doddershall, J.P., d.1751, signed P. Scheemakers, with carved figure of deceased in a toga semi-reclining below medallion portrait of his dead son, the rear panel with surround of fluted Corinthian pilasters and broken pediment; pair of coloured marble wall monuments flanking altar, to Christobella Viscountess Saye and Sele 1789 and her second husband Richard Fiennes 1781, each with dado, fan motifs flanking oval inscription panel, and obelisk with carved figure and an urn; marble wall tablet to Harriet Lamb 1785; other C18 oval inscription panels. RCHM II p. 130-131 (B5).
Evaluation test pitting carried out by Oxford Archaeology in November 2003 in advance of proposed new vestry extension to the north of the nave identified 2 possible phases of external wall butress construction in the 14th and 15th centuries (B8).
Illustration included in a collection of sketches of Buckinghamshire churches by Charlotte Pigott in the early 1840s (B9).
Included in Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Condition described as 'Very bad; Priority category A: Immediate risk of further rapid deterioration or loss of fabric; no solution agreed' (B10-12).
The church has been a victim of heritage crime and the nave roof structural timbers have active death watch beetle. An application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund Grant for Places of Worship in the summer of 2017 was successful and a grant was provided. Works to the nave roof were commenced at the start of the summer of 2019 (B12).