St Dionysius, Market Harborough
St Dionysius, Market Harborough
St Dionysius is a Grade I parish church on Church Square, Market Harborough, Leicestershire, in the Diocese of Leicester.
- Location
- Market Harborough, Leicestershire
- Country
- England
- County
- Leicestershire
- City / town
- Market Harborough
- Address
- Church Square, Market Harborough, Leicestershire, LE16 7NB
- Postcode
- LE16 7NB
- Built
- Earlier C13 as chapel of St Mary in Arden; present fabric mainly C14-C15
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Dionysius
- Diocese
- Leicester
- Parish
- Market Harborough St Dionysius
- Grade
- I
- Style
- Decorated and Perpendicular
- Materials
- Grey ashlar tower; coursed sandstone rubble with crenellated parapet
- Grid reference
- SP 733 872
- Opening hours
- St Dionysius is open all week from 9.30am to 4pm.
- Access
- Accessible toilets in church. Level access throughout. Ramp or level access available on request
Overview
Historic England records a parish church originally built as a chapel of St Mary in Arden in the earlier thirteenth century. The present architectural character is mainly fourteenth- and fifteenth-century. An early fourteenth-century grey ashlar tower with a crocketed broach spire dominates the town; the rest of the church is coursed sandstone rubble with a crenellated parapet and buttresses. The plan is nave and chancel with clerestory, aisles and north and south porches. Crocketed crosses finish the east gables of nave and chancel. The south face of the tower carries a large sundial. Galleries of 1836 remain inside. A fine achievement of the Royal Arms of 1660 stands at the west end. The fifteenth-century timber roof was restored in the same style in 1954. Fragments of medieval wall painting were found in 1959 at the east end of the north aisle.
The church is the dominant feature of Church Square and of many views of the town, and stands in the Market Harborough Conservation Area.