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St.
Leonard's is a church in the middle of rolling farmland, with no associated
village. The present church is fourteenth century, but there was an earlier
church on the site, mentioned as the "chapel of Otriforde", a daughter church
of Taunton Priory. It is halfway between Exeter and Glastonbury and was a
pilgrim church, run originally by two monks who lived at Holman Clavel, a
mile away.
It was enlarged by the
addition of a north aisle in 1861, so the sculpture of a queen's head there
is likely to have been Victoria, though this does not seem to be known.
Over the porch is a sundial
dated 1826 inscribed "Our days on earth are as a shadow", and there is early
graffiti on the jamb of the main door with a date of 1641. The wooden vaulting
over the nave is probably Victorian, but there is an earlier 16th century barrel
vaulted roof over the chancel.
The church is adjacent
to the beautiful Otterford Lakes, once the estate of William Bleadon, a Taunton
surgeon, who built a six-turreted Tudor style house there in 1841, surrounded
by a landscaped garden. The house was demolished in 1947 as it was considered
unsafe; the garden with its lakes is now owned by the Water Board and is open
to the public.
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