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St. Leonard's Church in Waterstock is a stone building of various dates comprising a chancel, nave, north aisle, western tower, and north and south porches. The early medieval church was rebuilt at the end of the 15th century by Thomas Danvers and his first wife, a daughter of James Fiennes, Lord Saye and Sele  An inscription below the arms of Danvers which was in a window in the north aisle and which was recorded by Anthony Wood indicates that they began the work by rebuilding the nave. The inscription ran: 'Orate pro animabus … filiae Jacobi Finys, qui istam ecclesiam fecerunt anno gratiae MCCCCLXXX.' A north aisle dedicated to St. Ann was being built in 1501, for Thomas Danvers directed in his will, dated November 1501, that the 'aisle' be finished 'in as goodly hast as it may be and covered with lead'. A new chancel, which he had begun, was also to be finished under the supervision of his second wife Sybyl Brecknoke (neé Fowler). He directed that he should be buried in the chancel 'before St. Leonard'. His monument, described by Wood, no longer exists. 

The windows of the new building were filled with painted glass mostly of 15th and early 16th-century date. Nothing further is known of the history of the fabric until 1692, when Sir Henry Ashhurst was given permission to take over part of the north aisle (28 ft. by 12 ft.) as a 'dormitory' or burial place for his family on condition that he kept it in repair and beautified it. The fabric was apparently neglected in the first half of the 18th century, for in 1758 the archdeacon ordered that elder bushes and banks of rubbish should be moved from 'the foundation of the walls of the church'; that part of the walls and tower should be repointed, the pavement of church and chancel should be laid and made even, and a new door should be made on the north side. In 1789 the church was again reported out of repair and in 1790 nave and chancel were rebuilt by Sir W. H. Ashhurst. Early 19th-century drawings of the church and an account of the same period record that the chancel had an east window of three lights without tracery and no side windows; that there were two windows in the south wall of the nave, each of three round-headed lights under a square label and that the nave had a flat ceiling with a cornice; that the north aisle with its perpendicular windows and the west tower of three stories with a parapet and small bellcote had been left in their original state except for the addition of the clock on the east face of the tower.

In 1845 chancel, nave, and tower all needed repair. The estimated cost was about £30. No major repairs were executed until a thorough restoration was carried out during 1857–8 under the direction of the architect G. E. Street. The builder was George Wyatt of Oxford. The church was under-pinned, a brick gutter put round it and the earth removed from the foundation; the south wall of the nave was repaired, two new windows and a door being inserted in place of the old ones; the plaster ceiling was removed so as to open up the nave roof, and a battlemented cornice was added. The gallery erected at the west end at some unknown date was abolished. A new chancel arch was built; a new east window, copied from one at Great Milton church, was inserted and the chancel ceiling was raised so as to show the point of the window. The chancel and north aisle were reroofed, the north wall of the aisle having been made 3 feet higher. A new vestry and a south and a north porch were built. The church was repaved, Minton tiles being used for the chancel, and it was reseated and refurnished. Parishioners gave a new pulpit, lectern, prayer desk, altar rails, and font. The medieval font, 'plain and round', had to be replaced as it no longer held water. Thomas Willement did three painted windows (i.e. the east and west windows and a small one in the chancel); Castell of London painted the Belief, the Lord's Prayer and the Commandments, and three texts for the back of the altar for use on festivals. The total cost, including the gifts of furniture, windows, and the two new porches, was about £1,500. Further alterations were made later in the century. In 1861 the east window in the north aisle was given by Mrs. Ashhurst and in 1872 the painted reredos of the Last Supper and altar dado, consisting of panels with painted figures of saints and prophets, was given by the Revd. J. H. Ashhurst. In 1888 a new belfry floor was made and a clock was placed in the tower. 

There was another restoration in 1930. The roof was stripped and covered with slates; the church was refloored and put in 'complete order'. Electric light has since been installed.

The chief glory of the medieval church was its painted glass. Only that in the three top lights of the Ashhurst window in the north aisle has survived the various restorations, but Anthony Wood visited Waterstock in May 1668, and has left a detailed record. In the chancel window were the arms of France and England quartered, and the arms of the Bruley, Quartermain, and Danvers families. In the north window of the nave were the figures of two men 'all in blew', each kneeling before a desk, one a clergyman the other a layman, and the pictures of three saints above them. This window was commissioned, according to the inscription underneath, by Master John Brown, once rector of the church, in memory of himself, his father Thomas Brown, and his mother. Master John Brown (rector 1469–99) and his father may be identified with the figures in two of the surviving fragments. The other surviving fragment is 13th-century glass. The rest of the glass described by Wood was probably commissioned by Thomas Danvers or his two wives, either for the windows of the nave after it was rebuilt in 1480 or for the north aisle after 1501. The armorial glass included the arms of many families with which the Danvers were allied by marriage, those for instance of Brancastre, Pury, Verney, Fowler, and Brecknoke. There were also painted figures of Thomas Danvers and his two wives, and over them the pictures of three female saints, identified by Wood as Barbara, 'Trinitas', and Anna; a figure of Thomas Danvers, esquire (presumably one commissioned before his investiture as a knight in 1501); and of John Danvers, esquire.

There was formerly an inscription which ran: 'Orate pro animabus Johannis Danvers et domine Johanne et heredis Johannis Bruly et Matildae Quatermayne uxoris sue quondam patronorum istius ecclesie.' There were also inscriptions to the following: Henry Danvers and his wife Beatrice, the daughter of Sir Ralph Verney; Richard Danvers of Prestcote; Sir John Fray and his wife Agnes; William Fowler and his wife Cicely; and William Danvers and his wife Anne. Anne died in 1531 and seems to have been the last of the Danvers family to be commemorated. Wood also describes a figure of a bishop with his crozier resting on his shoulder, wearing his mitre and 'praying'. The last figure had an inscription beneath with the names of George Neville, Archbishop of York (1464–76), William Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester, a friend of Thomas Danvers, and Thomas Danvers himself. Another figure of a bishop surmounted the archiepiscopal arms of York quartering Montague, Monthermer, and Neville. In the east window of the north aisle were the arms of Croke and Bennett. As this is the only glass commemorating the Croke family recorded by Wood, all the rest being in the windows of the manor-house, it is possible that the available window space was filled by 1610, when George Croke became lord of the manor. The Ashhurst window in the north aisle seems to have been mostly inserted just before 1852. It is mentioned in Gardner's directory for that year, but not in the architectural guide of 1846. Fortythree shields fill three lights and illustrate the genealogy of the Ashhurst family from Adam de Ashhurst, 'sans date', to John Henry Ashhurst, 1848. Most of the shields in the east light have Ashhurst in the dexter and the sinister half is left blank for the use of posterity. Later in the century an oval panel painted with an achievement of arms and the inscription 'John Warner and Elizabeth Ashhurst married 29th April 1755', was inserted in the middle of the east light. It is signed W. Peckitt 1769 and is contemporary with some of his glass in New College chapel. The last marriage commemorated was in 1881: the work was inferior and the enamel has already faded. The church also has some wallpaintings: these were noted in 1887, but are no longer visible. Between the north and south doors are the matrices of two brasses, one an early 15thcentury half-effigy of a man, the other possibly of a priest. In the centre aisle is a marble gravestone with the remains of an inscription in Lombardic letters: + William: De: La: Ba …… Merci. It was probably to William de la Beche. 

The principal monument, with arms, in the church is to Sir George Croke, Justice of the King's Bench and lord of the manor (d. 1641/2). The inscription has been ascribed to Matthew Hale. It was moved from the chancel in 1858 to the north aisle. A black marble gravestone to Dame Mary, his widow (d. 1657), and another to Charles Hinde, rector (d. 1725), were also moved from the chancel and are also in the north aisle. There are memorial tablets to the following: the rector's son Francis Hinde of London (d. 1720) and his wife; Dame Frances Allin (d. 1743), daughter of Sir Henry Ashhurst; Edward Lewis, rector (d. 1784) and his wife; Sir William Henry Ashhurst (d. 1807); Robert Robinson, Rector of Waterstock and Emmington (d. 1826) and his wife; and William Henry Ashhurst, Esq., M.P. (d. 1846).

The Edwardian inventory records one chalice. The church now possesses two Elizabethan silver chalices, one hall-marked 1569 and the other 1570 with the maker's mark Ak; both have lost their paten covers. There is a large silver paten with foot dated 1715 and bearing the initials C.J. for Joseph Clare, and a silver flagon of 1863. There is a 16th-century pewter paten, and a pewter tankard flagon. 

A medieval bell inscribed Sante Nicholae si was recast by Gillett of Croydon in 1888, and so were two bells dated 1616 and 1664 and originally made by Henry Knight and Richard Keene respectively. 

In 1697 the south side of the churchyard was said to be too narrow, so that the graves lay exposed 'to the scandal of the Christian church'. Since part of the Ashhursts' house stood within the north side of the churchyard, Sir Henry Ashhurst gave some land on the south in exchange. He also promised to build a 'handsome' churchyard wall of stone coped with brick and a 'handsome' pair of gates with iron bars.

In 1858 the boundary wall on the north side of the churchyard was replaced by an iron railing set in stone and a new south gate was made at a cost of £38. 

The registers date from 1580.

Historical information about St. Leonard's Church is provided by 'Parishes: Waterstock', in A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 7, Dorchester and Thame Hundreds, ed. Mary Lobel (London, 1962), pp. 220-230. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol7/pp220-230 [accessed 30 March 2023].

St. Leonard's Church is a Grade II* listed building. For more information about the listing see CHURCH OF ST LEONARD, Waterstock - 1284314 | Historic England.

For more information about St. Leonard's Church see Parishes: Waterstock | British History Online (british-history.ac.uk).