VOL. XIX. (2) EXCURSION— ST.\NLEY ST. LEON.AKD 
87 
EXCURSIONS, 1916 
{Reports by Roland Austin and W. Thompson) 
EXCURSION TO STANLEY ST. LEONARD. 
Tuesday, May i6th, 1916. 
{Director : W. St. Clair Baddeley, President) 
The first of the Field Meetings arranged for the year was favoured with 
fine weather, and though the attendance of Members was less than usual 
those who met at Stanley St. Leonard Church were rewarded by the interesting 
way in which the President described its history and that of the conventual 
buildings still remaining. The Members present were : The President, 
Charles Upton (Vice-President), Roland Austin (Acting Hon. Secretary), T. 
S. Ellis, J. C. Frith, E. W. Fyffe, H. H. Knight, E. P. Little, A. S. Mont- 
gomrey, J. W. Skinner, W. Thompson, and visitors. 
Before conducting the Members to the Church, the President expressed 
the regret all felt that owing to indisposition the Vicar, the Rev. Charles 
Swynnerton, F.S.A., was unable to be present. Their thanks were due to 
him for the care with which he was carrying out the restoration of the Church, 
and those interested in the archaeology of the County were indebted to him 
for the discoveries he had made. The Vicar had undertaken to give an account 
of the Church, but now asked him to do so. 
The President gave an outline of the history of the Manor, and of the 
Priory, presenting many new facts which he had gathered from records, and 
then conducted the joarty first to the conventual buildings and the smaller 
Church — the original Parish Church of the village — and afterwards to the 
Priory Church, pointing out in a very clear way the features of interest to 
be noted. The information thus imparted is embodied in the paper, supple- 
mented by plans, printed (pp. 103-114) in this number of the Proceedings. 
During the restoration of the Nave, some interesting discoveries have 
been made. In a paper in the Church Builder for July, 1915, the Rev. C. 
Swynnerton states that on taking down the matchwood ceiling it was seen 
that the roof was of oak of the fourteenth century. The eastern cloister 
processional door was found and from the built-up space were recovered 
most of the external carvings, consisting of chevrons and pellet mouldings, 
with portions of shafts and a Norman capital and base. Stripping the 
plaster revealed the doorway of a staircase in the thickness of the south wall 
of the Nave, leading up to another doorway, wliich opened on to a screen. 
The staircase was lighted by a small perpendicular window looking into the 
nave. It was also found that the jambs of the rece.ss in which is built the 
west window were carried upwards in the masonry, showing that when the 
roof was lowered in the fourteenth century the arch had also been lowered 
from above, where po.ssibly it may have covered one or more Norman windows 
in tlie original design. A very fine aumbry was found in the north wall of 
the Presbytery, vaulted, with a Norman ribbon moulding over it similar to 
the string courses of tlie north and south wa.lN. 
