Church Of St Nicholas

DURHAM AND FRAMWELLGATE MARKET PLACE NZ 2742 NW (North side)

9/234

Church of St Nicholas

19.2.70

GV

II

Parish church. 1857-8 by J.P. Pritchett. Snecked sandstone with ashlar dressings; graduated Lakeland slate roof with stone gable copings. Aisled nave and chancel; south porch and south tower. Decorated style. 5-stage tower in second bay from west has angle buttresses with gabled offsets; double door with ornate iron hinges in shafted and moulded surround with ballflower decoration; arms of City of Durham and church in blind quatrefoils at either side under quatrefoil band and sloped coping, imitating Kepier Hospital gatehouse (q.v.). Elaborate canopied niche above contains statue of St. Nicholas, flanked by blind cross-slits. Tall third stage has 2 high windows. Mask brackets support clock under pinnacled gablet; paired 2-light belfry openings above under battlemented parapet on ballflower- and-mask brackets. Gabled corner pinnacles; tall octagonal stone spire with lucarnes. 3-light aisle windows in bays defined by buttresses with gablets and pinnacles; 4-light chancel window in first bay. Clerestory has rounded triangular windows. East front has shallow gabled porch in south aisle and 2-light window in north, with gabled buttresses; large 5-light east window; 4-light west window.

Interior: painted plaster with arch-braced collar and king-post roof. 4-bay north arcade and 2-bay south arcade have leaf-carved capitals to shafted columns; high chancel arch in similar style. Re-ordered, with chancel arch and aisles filled with glazed screens forming chapel. Tower has 8-ribbed vault with heraldic and floral corbels; central boss carved ST.N. and dated 1858. Traceried stone screens in chancel commemorate Ralph Dixon and are gift of the proprietors of Durham Waterworks in 1858. Glass by L.C. Evetts in south aisle, 1963.

Listing NGR: NZ2741842587