St Leonard's Church is an Anglican church in Hove, in the English city of Brighton and Hove. It is on New Church Road in the Aldrington area of Hove, which was previously a separate village, and it serves as Aldrington's parish church. The church was on Church Road but now stands on New Church Road, renamed in reference to the other church (St Philip's) which was started in 1894.
History
Aldrington developed in the mediaeval period as a small village between Hove, to the east, and the original (inland) settlement at Portslade, near the mouth of the River Adur. Over time the course of the river changed, and the population gradually fell; damage caused to houses in the Great Storm of 1703 increased the rate of decline, and the area was totally depopulated by 1800. A mediaeval parish church, built in the 13th century with a tower, chancel and nave, existed on a site to the northeast of Aldrington's only road. This started to fall into disrepair in the 16th century, however, and was in ruins by 1638, with the walls collapsing soon after 1800.
The church stands on a small hill in the Murova neighborhood, the town's historic core, and is dedicated to Saint Leonard of Noblac. It is first mentioned in documents dating to 1460 and was originally dedicated to Mary Magdalene. The original Gothic church had a rectangular nave and pentagonalpresbytery, and was surrounded with a defensive wall, fortified with three square towers, one of which partially survives in the southern support wall. It was built in the mid 15th century and has its first major rebuilding in 1524 and was remodelled in the Baroque style in the early 18th century.
The west facade features a statue of the Risen Christ on a column, a result of an expressionist-inspired 1930s renovation, planned and to a great degree carried out by the architects Dragotin Fatur (a student of Jože Plečnik) and Miro Kos. In the 1960s, the church was again partially remodeled by Ivan Pengov. Most of the church's present appearance is a result of the renovations. Exceptions include the gothic floor plan, Baroque ceiling decorations in the presbytery, and the gothic portal leading to the belfry. Of the former baroque altars only a few statues and paintings they once held survive. The pipe organ casing was made in 1936 in Šentvid near Ljubljana.
The stained glass in the eastern lunette and south window were manufactured in 1969 in Zagreb according to Pengov's plans. The church contains paintings by locally well-known artists such as Tone Kralj, Matevž Langus and Ivan Vavpotič.
Aldrington is an area of the city of Brighton and Hove, previously part of the old borough of Hove. For centuries it was meadow land along the English Channel stretching west from the old village of Hove to the old mouth of the River Adur, and it is now a prosperous residential area integrated within Hove.
History
There was Roman activity and settlement in the area. The Anglo-Saxons gave it the name Ealdhere's Tun — Ealdhere's farm — and the name appears in the Domesday Book as Eldretune. During the High Middle Ages the fortunes of the village waned as the mouth of the River Adur moved west to Portslade, and as acres of land were lost to the sea. By the end of the sixteenth century its church dedicated to St Leonard was a ruin, and though the population rallied for a time in the seventeenth century by the 1831 census the area recorded a population of just two.
Nineteenth century
The area of Aldrington began to be developed from the late nineteenth century as a westward extension of Hove. The church of St Leonard was restored in 1878, and incorporates parts of the medieval structure. Aldrington was amalgamated with Hove in 1894. The ground plan of Aldrington was set out on a grid-iron system, most unusual within England. The main artery running east-west is New Church Road, a broad and straight residential road. Originally called simply Church Road. it was renamed New Church Road to reflect the opening of St Philip's Church in 1895. Parallel with it to the south is Kingsway (previously called Shoreham Road) which runs along the edge of the sea. Parallel to the north is Portland Road.
