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East Drayton church, c.1910.
EAST DRAYTON. Gathered pleasantly about its quiet cross roads, it is proud of its wayside church, a fine all-embattled pile of grey stone inside and out, filled with light from windows which all have clear glass and come from the end of the 15th century.
The tower is 14th and 15th century. The handsome porch of the 15th has elaborate buttresses and pinnacles, and a stone roof with ribs ending in tiny corbel heads showing grotesque and human faces. Other faces peep out from foliage in bosses of the nave and chancel roofs, where beams painted with scrolls and flowers are in rich contrast with grey walls.
The north arcade of the nave is six centuries old, and the south is five. There is a plain old font, and at the foot of the belfry stair is a small old door. Much of the lofty chancel screen is about 1500, and part of the old altar rails are in the south aisle.
The Vamping Horn
East Leake church in 2008.
© Copyright Jonathan Billinger and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
EAST LEAKE. Busy making baskets and hosiery, it lies in a dip of the Wolds nine miles from Nottingham. Its old manor house and huge barns in the middle of the village are now part of a farm. A fine cross and a charming wayside garden, with the Sheepwash Brook from Rempstone Hill running by its rockeries and pools, are in memory of the men who gave themselves for peace. On the opposite side of the road, in company with two towering sycamores, is the church, full of years and interest.
Its oldest story is told by two fine patches of herringbone masonry in the north wall of the nave, which come from early Norman or even Saxon days, and by two windows of the same time which frame modern pictures of Mary and John. The 13th century tower has a 15th century spire, and the nave arcade comes between the two. The clerestory is 15th century. The chancel, mostly made new last century, has a splendid 600-year-old east window and some 13th century lancets, one looking like a coloured pencil with its shining glass in memory of John Bley, who endowed a school in the village 200 years ago. The beautiful 14th century east window of the aisle glows with warm colour in memory of John Bateman, a rector for 46 years of last century.
The great font is over 700 years old; some of the poppyhead bench-ends and the splendid pelican on the pulpit are 500. The pulpit and the lectern are made of oak from the old belfry, and some open seats have been here since 1612. Part of a rare book called The Dippers Dipt, of 1645, is in the vestry; it was once chained.
Tin trumpet.
East Leake's rarest treasure, in the church for all to see, is a long tin trumpet which is one of six left in English churches. Measuring nearly eight feet when extended, and 21 inches across the mouth, it was used till 1855 for the principal singers to vamp through, making what the Psalmist would have called a joyful noise unto the Lord. The other five are at Bradbrook and Harrington, Northants; at Charing in Kent; at Ashurst in Sussex; and at Willoughton, Lincs.