The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
St Luke (medieval)
Parish church
Gaddesby is a village in the Melton district of the county, 8 miles NE of Leicester and 5 miles SW of Melton Mowbray. The church is ooutside the village centre to the E. Pevsner describes the church as 'one of the largest and most beautiful in the county', but the only reminderthat there was onece a Norman church here is a single reset chevron voussoir. St Luke's consists of a 13thc. W tower with a spire, a nave with a 14thc aisles: the slightly earlier S aisle a lavish showpiece with sumptuous details, while the N aile is smaller and humbler though still rich work of the 1330s or '40s. The chancel , of rubble, is earlier than either, Pvesner dated it 1310-15. The church was restored in 1859, when a priests' doorway was added to the chancel.
Parish church
Thurnby is a village in the Harborough district of the county, on the eastern border of Leicester itself. St Luke's is in the village centre and is a large cruciform building with a 3-bay aisled nave with a S porch. The chancel is 19thc, the N transept contains the organ and vestry, and the S transept forms the termination of the nave aisle. At the W end of the N nave aisle is a modern parish hall. The lower stage of the tower is 12thc, but the heavy crossing piers have been refaced and their multi-scallop capitals look 19thc. The tower's upper stages are successively 13thc and 14thc. The nave arcades are of the late-13thc., but Slater and Carpenter's restoration of 1870-73 was effectively a complete rebuilding. In the S porch is a rebuilt chevron arch, and this is the only feature recorded here.