St Luke's Church, Fountain Street, Leek, Staffordshire

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
Selected Sources
Article Reference - Author: Nikolaus Pevsner - Title: Staffordshire - Date: 1974 - Journal Title: The Buildings of England - Page References: 170

National Grid Reference: SJ 98819 56558