The church of St Leonard's Without is a small chapel built between 1230 and 1240 in the parish of Kirkstead,

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

, close to

Woodhall Spa Woodhall Spa is a former spa town and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England, on the southern edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds, south-west of Horncastle, Lincolnshire, Horncastle, west of Skegness, east-south-east o ...

. The chapel lies close to the now-ruined

Kirkstead Abbey Kirkstead Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery in Kirkstead, Lincolnshire, England. The monastery was founded in 1139 by Hugh Brito, (or Hugh son of Eudo), lord of Tattershall, and was originally colonised by an abbot and twelve monks from ...

founded in 1139. It served as the ''capella ante portas'' (Latin for chapel outside the gates) to the abbey and its name refers to its being "without" (outside) the walls of the

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

. A Grade I listed building, it is an excellent example of the

Early English style English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed a ...

. Even though measuring only by , it is up to "cathedral standards" of construction. It may well have been built as a

chantry A chantry is an ecclesiastical term that may have either of two related meanings: # a chantry service, a set of Christian liturgical celebrations for the dead (made up of the Requiem Mass and the Office of the Dead), or # a chantry chapel, a b ...

chapel in memory of Robert de Tattershall, who died in 1212. After use for many centuries as a church, it closed in 1877, when a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

congregation was evicted. From 1883 the

Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) (also known as Anti-Scrape) is an amenity society founded by William Morris, Philip Webb, and others in 1877 to oppose the Victorian restoration, destructive 'restoration' of ancient bu ...

fought to save it from total decay. Eventually during 1913 and 1914, it was restored by the architect William Weir.

References

External links

*
Kirkstead, St Leonard's Church
at the ''Britain Express'' website Church of England church buildings in Lincolnshire East Lindsey District Grade I listed buildings in Lincolnshire 13th-century church buildings in England Woodhall Spa {{England-church-stub

See also

References

External links