Church Of St Nicholas

Church of St Nicholas

A parish church of exceptional historical significance with architectural elements spanning from the 12th to 15th centuries. The church comprises a west tower, a four-bay aisled nave with south porch and north door, a three-bay chancel, and a two-bay chapel of St Michael adjoining to the south.

The earliest work dates from the 12th to 13th centuries, represented by the nave. The late 13th century saw the construction of the nave arcades, chancel, and tower, though the tower was substantially rebuilt in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. A chapel was added in the 14th century, and a porch and clerestory were built in the 15th century. The chancel was restored in 1885 by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. Between 1888 and 1893, F S Brodrick oversaw extensive restorations including re-roofing and re-seating. The north aisle was restored in 1914. The spire was removed and the parapet rebuilt in 1969.

The building displays mixed external finishes. Random cobbles cover the nave, south aisle, west wall of the north aisle, and porch sides. Limestone ashlar faces the tower, north aisle, south chapel, and porch front. The chancel is pebbledashed. The red brick clerestory features an ashlar parapet. Limestone ashlar dressings appear throughout, and lead roofs cover the structure.

The four-stage tower has a plinth and angle buttresses with offsets to the first three stages, separated by moulded string courses. The first stage contains a small blocked pointed hollow-chamfered north door. The second stage displays a pointed west window with restored Y-tracery, original hoodmould and head stops. The third stage is plain but retains a line indicating the former nave gable. Pointed belfry openings show remains of former Y-tracery, hoodmoulds, and headstops, with 20th-century wooden louvres. The tower is finished with a coped parapet.

The nave has a plinth and single buttresses at the west end, above which the former roofline remains visible. The north aisle features a moulded plinth, buttresses with offsets to angles and between bays, a pointed moulded door, and pointed three-light north and east windows with Perpendicular tracery, partly restored. The south aisle has a chamfered plinth, a single west buttress, and square-headed three-light cinquefoiled windows with moulded reveals and restored mullions, together with a moulded string course and coped parapet. The clerestory contains partly-restored square-headed two-light cinquefoiled windows and a moulded string course, with a coped ashlar parapet (repaired with brick to the north-east).

The chancel has a chamfered plinth to the south, angle buttresses, and quoins. Its windows include two pointed Y-traceried windows with restored mullions, a single small square-headed two-light trefoiled window to the north, two similar square-headed two-light windows to the south, and a square-headed three-light cinquefoiled window with restored mullions. A pointed five-light east window features a double-chamfered reveal, restored moulded intersecting tracery, original hoodmould and headstops, with re-set carved heads above. A 19th-century string course and coped parapet complete the exterior.

The south chapel has a moulded plinth and buttresses with gabled coping, one incorporating a carved gargoyle. A restored moulded sill string course is visible, along with square-headed two-light windows with rounded-trefoiled heads and double-chamfered reveals to the south (with partly-restored moulded mullions), and a similar three-light east window with plain mullions. A graveslab of 1825 is attached to the east wall above a blocked entrance.

The porch has a moulded plinth, a pointed moulded outer arch with a square ashlar tablet above bearing a shield in a quatrefoil, a moulded string course, and a coped parapet. The inner arch is pointed and hollow-chamfered.

The interior features a small segmental-headed tower door with a pointed Y-traceried window above in a deeply-splayed reveal. The nave arcades are pointed and double-chamfered, rising on quatrefoiled piers with plain moulded capitals and square bases; the later north piers are more slender. A tall pointed double-chamfered chancel arch has an inner order dying into chamfered jambs, with the north side cutting a small round-arched recess, possibly a 12th-century entrance to a rood-loft.

The chancel contains a two-bay south arcade of pointed double-chamfered arches with continuous chamfers to the central pier and chamfers dying into responds. A blocked segmental-headed door and section of a former pointed two-light window appear on the north wall. A trefoiled piscina with a mutilated bowl is also present. The south aisle has a pointed double-chamfered arch leading to the chapel. The chapel contains an image bracket and blocked door to the east, plus a 19th-century piscina.

The roofs throughout date from the 19th century. The four-bay nave roof features cranked tie-beams with king and queen posts, pierced trefoiled panels and carved pendants, corbelled wall posts with arch braces and carved spandrels.

The church contains numerous monuments of note. A black marble floor slab in the chancel commemorates John Angell of 1647, bearing a Latin inscription and incised arms in a cartouche. A marble bracket with a carved apron in the chancel supports a marble wall tablet re-set in the north aisle to the same John Angell, dated 1647, featuring a Latin inscription in a shouldered and eared architrave, foliate ornament, and an open segmental pediment carrying a carved and painted achievement in a cartouche. The south aisle contains marble wall tablets to Edward Ombler of 1802 (with fluted pilasters and a draped urn) and Edward Ombler of 1825 (with a carved pediment and arms).

A fine 13th-century font with a large cylindrical bowl is decorated with arcading of pointed Y-traceried trefoiled arches. The south aisle retains re-set carved wooden roof corbels, probably 15th-century, bearing faces, foliage, and fleur-de-lys motifs. A 16th to 17th-century wrought-iron hour-glass stand stands beside the pulpit, complete with its hour glass in a wooden holder.