Parish Church of St Nicholas (C of E)

Parish Church of St Nicholas

This Church of England parish church is constructed in reinforced concrete, faced in plain red and brown brick laid in Flemish bond with brick, stone and concrete dressings, and a tile roof.

The church is planned as a rectangular nave with side aisles and an apsidal east end. A Lady Chapel is attached to the south of the chancel and a vestry to the north. A square tower stands at the south west end, with a small circular baptistry at the north west corner.

The main south elevation comprises a three-bay rectangular chancel with a pitched roof and tall, narrow round-headed windows. It has a blind, apsidal east end carrying a depiction of a cross detailed in slightly different coloured brick. The attached rectangular Lady Chapel has a flat roof and four rectangular windows. The five-bay nave has a single roundel and paired round-headed lancets within rectangular-headed openings; the aisle is pierced by four small square windows. The west end comprises a tall square tower with a main entrance to the ground floor reached by a set of stone steps. The entrance has fluted stone reveals and double wooden doors with a stone tympanum bearing a carving of St Nicholas aiding sailors in distress, carved by local artist Mrs Hornsby. Above is a bank of five rectangular windows and three full height round-headed narrow louvered openings with projecting decorated concrete plinths; above these are three decorated waterspouts. The side west elevation has a stone band, below which there is a row of small square windows matching those of the aisles and above which there are triple round-headed lancets flanked by a single square-headed lancet with projecting hoods. The rear north elevation replicates the south but has a projecting flat-roofed apsidal baptistry with three rectangular windows at the west end and rectangular flat-roofed vestries at the east end. All windows have well laid brick lintels. Original windows have small paned leaded lights while later replacements have stained glass.

Internally, the church is entered through a vestibule with a concrete staircase and ornate metal balustrade accessing the tower on the left. A pair of wooden and glazed doors give access to the main body of the church. The nave and chancel, with no chancel arch between them, have plainly painted plaster walls and a flat ceiling with a narrow central tunnel vault. Although externally the church is articulated with nave and aisles, internally there is no subdivision of space by arcades. Instead the clerestory is supported on short concrete beams between square pillars rising to ceiling height as pilasters. The circular baptistry is entered through a plain round-arched opening with curving fixed stone seating and also gives entry to the north aisle. The narrow chancel retains original oak choir stalls, pulpit, desk and panelling. Three round-headed openings through the south wall give access to the Lady Chapel; also in this wall are a niche and a small cupboard. The vestry is accessed through the north wall of the chancel and the organ is housed in this wall with a loft and decorative wooden screen above. The small sanctuary, approached by a raised dais, is plainly painted with the original oak altar and altar rails to the front. All woodwork is simply detailed. The plain Lady Chapel has a pair of fixed bench fronts at the rear and the main window has an oak surround with stepped reveals. Wooden parquet flooring is laid throughout.

The baptistry contains three stained glass windows by Marion Grant. Forty-seven other stained glass windows by Leonard Evetts form the largest collection of his work in England. They comprise various subjects all inspired by Biblical texts, Christian themes and the lives of the saints. Some have been grouped together thematically: the Northern Saints in the north aisle, the Pilgrimage of Faith in the sixteen lights of the clerestory, the Creation in the lower west end with the Vision of Heaven above.