The Norman Tower of the Church of St. Nicholas, Leeds. © P.E. Blanche 2000 The View of the Church from the Southeast © P.E. Blanche 2002

The first thing that strikes you when you drive into the lane up to this Church is the size of the tower - not so much in height but in width. The construction is Norman in origin and is supposedly up to eight feet thick which accounts for the substantial appearance. The buttresses were added later although, as I have seen mentioned in another book, why buttresses would be needed on this tower when it has such thick walls, goodness only knows. Of course, when Leeds is mentioned, the usual association is with the Castle of that name, The Lady's Castle (as every other book seems to say when the subject of Leeds is mentioned - so why be different!). The Church is some way from the Castle, in fact on the hill in the actual Village of Leeds. However, it is a large Church and the proximity of the Castle may partially account for this and possibly the fact the there was once a large Augustinian Priory at Leeds. Evidence has been found of an earlier Saxon Church on this site. As well as the remains of stone walls under the floor of the present Nave, in the North aisle parts of two Saxon windows were discovered in 1879 but they were then covered up again and unfortunately, nothing visible now remains. It is often suspected that Saxon churches preceeded the later Norman or early English construction in many parishes but at Leeds it has definitely been proved that an earlier church did exist. The Norman tower, which is the second largest in England has an ancient 13th Century door. Additions to the building were made over the next 400 years with the most recent being additions to the Chancel in the 16th Century including the additional of a three seat sedilia. On my first visit to this Church I did not have the time to go in although it looked as if there was a function of some kind in progress anyway. More recently I did get the chance to stop and have a look around. For more information on the interior of the Church see the next page.