Country England Status Active Opened 1524 Province Province of York Heritage designation Listed building | Denomination Church of England Functional status Parish church Phone +44 161 643 4594 Archdeaconry Archdeacon of Rochdale | |
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Location Middleton, Greater Manchester Website www.middletonparishchurch.org.uk Address New La, Manchester M24 6DE, United Kingdom Diocese Anglican Diocese of Manchester Similar St Leonard's Church - S, Tonge Hall, St Leonard's Church, St Leonard's Church - B, Mills Hill railway station | ||
St Leonard's is an Anglican parish church in Middleton, Greater Manchester, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building.
Much of the present building was erected in 1412 by Thomas Langley (born in Middleton in 1363) who served as Bishop of Durham and Lord Chancellor of England. He re-used the Norman doorway from an earlier structure to create the tower arch. Also distinctive in this part of the world is the wooden belfry tower.
The church of St Leonard was completed in 1524 by Sir Richard Assheton, in celebration of the knighthood granted to him by Henry VIII for his part in the Battle of Flodden in 1513. The Flodden Window, in the sanctuary, is thought to be the oldest war memorial in the UK. It commemorates on it the names of the Middleton archers who fought at Flodden. The church also has one of the finest collections of monumental brasses in the area, including the only brass in the UK of an English Civil War officer in full armour, Major-General Sir Ralph Assheton. In 1958 George Pace added a new north porch and vestries. He also installed light fittings, and designed a memorial to the First World War.
In the extension of the churchyard are the war graves of two First World War soldiers, and an airman from the Second World War.