St Andrew's Church in Leyland and its medieval heritage

St Andrew's Church, nestled in Leyland, Lancashire, England, is an Anglican parish church under the Diocese of Blackburn. The church is a Grade II* listed building, with a history that stretches back to a likely Norman church on the site of the present structure. In the 12th century, Warine Bussel, baron of Penwortham, gave the church to Evesham Abbey in Worcestershire, and from the 14th century, vicars were appointed to Leyland church by the abbey.

Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century, the advowson for the church was transferred to John Fleetwood of Penwortham. The church's architecture features a chancel built in the 14th century and a tower that probably dates from the late 15th or early 16th century. The older nave was replaced from 1816 to 1817 to a design by a Mr Longworth, and the church was subsequently restored in 1874 by the Lancaster-based architecture firm Paley and Austin.

Today, St Andrew's remains an active parish church. The interior features a nave measuring 73 feet by 52 feet 6 inches, with three galleries and a chapel in the southeast corner. The chancel includes Perpendicular-style triple sedilia and a piscina. Stained glass in the church includes work by Clayton and Bell and Harry Stammers, while the churchyard contains war graves from both World War I and World War II.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons