This was built on the same site as the earlier church, funded largely, though not entirely, at the expense of The Honourable Mary Leigh, who inherited the Stoneleigh Abbey estate from her brother, Edward Leigh, in 1786. She contributed £500. Other contributions are recorded from local dignitaries and parishioners including:
- The Earl of Warwick – 50 guineas
- Henry Wise Esq – £100
- Robert Mallory Esq – £50
- The Earl of Clarendon – 80 guineas
- Bertie Greatheed Esq of Guy’s Cliffe – £40
- The Reverend Thomas Cox (Vicar) – £30
The church, designed by Hiorne of Birmingham, when first built consisted of the tower with a height of forty-eight feet, which was separate from the nave accessed by the west door (now blocked up). The nave measured forty-one feet by twenty-seven feet and was eighteen feet high. The span of the chancel arch was ten feet and the height fifteen feet. The contractor for the stone work was Brown of Kenilworth who was assisted by his son, a mason.
Since the building was completed, scarcely a decade has passed without some sort of extension or improvement being made, but this layout remained largely unaltered for 100 years, with the exception of the chancel being enlarged and a small vestry added in 1843. Fund raising committees and individual benefactors have knocked things down, re-built it and embellished it almost constantly over the years.
At some time between 1790 and 1843 a west gallery was erected.
The history of our church buildings
back to: The ancient church (demolished 1790) | forward to: The new chancel (1843)