St Leonard's Parish, Exeter

Registers etc.

Registers

Printed orders of service

Parish magazines

Incumbent

Licences to curates

Benefice

Churchwardens

Vouchers 1826 - 69

Church fabric and rebuilding (papers)

Church fabric and rebuilding (volumes)

Church fabric and rebuilding (contracts, mortgages etc.)

Faculties

(Not used)

Rural Dean's Visitation book

Annual churchwardens accounts (printed)

Churchyard and Burial Ground

Papers of A.E. Roach, Churchwarden and Hon. Treasurer re the church and its history and re Baring family and memorial, mainly early 20th C.

(See also Appendix)

Parochial Church Council

Vestry

Surveyors of Highways

Surveyors' vouchers

Committee for Watering Roads: vouchers and subscription books

Overseers of Poor

Miscellaneous

Appendix

Detailed list of contents of PW 114-117

Index to Vestry Minute book PV 1

Bibliography

Thomas Cann Hughes, "Rectors of St. Leonard's, Exeter, since the Commonwealth", Transactions of Devonshire Association, Vol. 44 p. 547

[Rev. G. Bevington], Eight Hundred Years at St. Leonard's, Exeter, Exeter 1967. A pamphlet

CHARITIES: See 1862A/PW 117 p. 36

EDUCATION: See 1862A/PW 42, 1862A/PW 114 - 115, 1862A/PW 100, 1862A/PV 1

CLUBS AND SOCIETIES:

Various: See 1862A/PW 100 - 103, 1862A/PR 40 - 79

Football Club: See 1862A/PW 114 p. 112, 1862A/PW 117 p. 200

Scouts: See 1862A/PW 114 p. 133, 1862A/PW 102 and 1862A/PR 40 - 79

St. Leonard's Brotherhood, later the Churchmens' Society, and Institute: See 1862A/PW 45, 1862A/PW 114, 1862A/PW 118

These records are available for research. Notice may be required to produce them in the searchroom

St. Leonard's church has undergone several rebuildings. The old medieval chapel of St. Leonard, having become too small for the growing population of the parish, was demolished in 1831 and replaced by a new church in the Grecian style which was consecrated in 1833 and enlarged in 1842 - 43. This new church was still too small and was found to be structurally unsafe, so it was decided to replace it by the present one which was built in two stages: firstly the chancel, transepts and vestry completed in 1877, and secondly the nave, aisles, tower and spire, completed in 1884. A new vestry was added in 1902.

To cater for the flourishing work of the church among the children and other sections of the community, a new Sunday School and Mission Hall (still in use as a parish hall) was built in Roberts Road in 1890, and a separate building was acquired for use as a Mens' Institute in 1912.

Despite local opposition, the parish was annexed to the City of Exeter under the Exeter Extension Boundaries Act which came into operation on 1 November 1877. Under the Scheme for the Pastoral Reorganisation of Exeter Parishes, which came into effect on 24 April 1956, St. Leonard's parish was enlarged by the addition of parts of the parishes of St. Edmund and Heavitree (see 1718 A add/PB 3-10). More recently, the neighbouring church of Holy Trinity was closed, and on 1 July 1970 its benefice was united with that of St. Leonard.