The church of St Leogedarius, Basford, is the featured church for May 2023. Basford is 3.8 km (2.4 miles) north-west of Nottingham city centre. It is one of only four churches in England with this dedication.
The church comprises a west tower, nave, north and south aisles, north and south porches, chancel, and north and south vestries.
The chancel dates from c.1180 and was restored in 1900 after a fire that destroyed the chancel roof and the fittings. There are three lancets to the east, two lancets to the north and four to the south. A fine priest’s door with waterleaf capitals can be seen in the vestry.
The north and south arcades are from c.1250 and have very slim quatrefoil shafts and fillets. The north aisle and arcade were rebuilt by Arthur Wilson as part of a restoration of the building in 1858-60. In April 1859, during work to strengthen the tower and insert and arch at the west end, the structure collapsed (despite being shored up with massive timbers). It was rebuilt by in 1859-61 by Thomas Allom in what Pevsner calls ‘a congested Early English style.’
In the south-west corner of the south aisle is a stained glass window by C. E. Kempe & Co, installed in 1911. It depicts the Annunciation of the Angel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin. The east window of the south aisle of Christ in Majesty may be by Waites of Newcastle and dates from c.1871.
The chancel reredos was installed after the 1900 fire and obscured much of the stained glass in the east wall lancets. It was dramatically modified in the 1920s to show the windows again.
A porphyry slab is built into the east jamb of the Early English south door. It possibly served as a pax, popularly known as the ‘Kissing Stone,’ at one time used in the celebration of mass.
There are a number of mural monuments dating from the 18th-20th centuries, including a tablet to the memory of Dr William H. Hill (1862-1915), the local doctor, erected by his friends and patients to record ‘their sense of loss sustained by his death and as a token of their appreciation of his upright character, his zeal and ability as a physician and surgeon and the unfailing kindness which he shewed to the sick poor committed to his care.’
Further information on the church can be found at the Southwell and Nottingham Church History Project website.