Church of St Nicholas

Church of St. Nicholas

This is a church dating from around 1200, with significant additions and alterations from the 14th and 15th centuries, and a rebuilt tower from the early 18th century. It is constructed in ashlar magnesian limestone with lead roofs.

The building comprises a west tower, an aisled three-bay nave with a two-bay chancel under the same roof. The chancel includes a south chapel, a north organ chamber, and a vestry, which continue the lines of the aisles.

The tower was rebuilt in 1712–13 in the Gothic Survival style. It has a chamfered plinth and moulded band with offset angle buttresses. On the west side is a segmentally-arched doorway beneath a pointed three-light window with mouchettes and hoodmould. The second stage has a blind-traceried square window. The third stage displays a clock set across a string course. Pointed two-light belfry openings feature louvres, cusping, and a quatrefoil beneath a hoodmould. A string course runs below the embattled parapet, which has corner waterspouts and eight crocketed pinnacles.

The south aisle of the nave has a chamfered plinth, moulded band, and offset buttresses between bays. Bay one has a moulded-arched doorway; bay two has a cusped Tudor-arched three-light window; bay three has a cusped square-headed three-light window. The aisle has a moulded eaves cornice and coped parapet to the west. The clerestory contains deeply-recessed two-light mullioned windows with a chamfered eaves band.

The north aisle is rubble-walled. On the right is a buttress beside a blocked early 13th-century north door with shafted jambs, carved capitals, and a roll-moulded arch with hoodmould. To the left of this door is a square-headed two-light window with moulded surround and shouldered lights. A buttress to the left has a similar blocked window, now cut by a blocked narrow two-centred-arched doorway with monarchs carved on the hoodmould stops. The clerestory has been rebuilt with 20th-century two-light mullioned windows.

The chancel's south chapel is detailed as the rest of the aisle, with a similar clerestory but broader windows. Those to bays two and three feature Y-tracery. The north aisle has a round-arched vestry door with a head-carved hoodmould stop on its left, beside a partly-blocked two-light square-headed window now featuring an image niche. To the organ chamber on the right is a buttress and a plain square-headed four-light window. The chancel has a rendered east end with later plain mullions to a 13th-century pointed three-light window with hoodmould having carved-head stops and dog-tooth ornament. The south chapel window matches the rest of the aisle. The north vestry has an early 14th-century three-light window with intersecting tracery and head-carved hoodmould stops.

The interior features a pointed three-order tower arch. The north arcade, dating from around 1200, has round piers with octagonal capitals supporting unrestored double-chamfered arches with plain hoodmoulds. The square western respond has a mask on a corbel. The Perpendicular south arcade has octagonal piers with less massive octagonal capitals and arches. A round-arched recess occupies the position of the blocked north door.

The nave roof has moulded, cambered tie beams and moulded purlins with uncarved bosses. In the chancel, the north arcade has two double-chamfered arches. The south arcade has a quatrefoil pier with fillets and an octagonal capital supporting two double-chamfered arches. The east window has keeled shafts in the jambs and nailhead ornament. An ogee-headed piscina is present. The chancel roof matches the nave roof but includes one carved boss.

Among the fittings is a late 18th-century wrought-iron screen to the south chapel. A painted coat of arms dated 1685 hangs beneath the tower, along with two boards inscribed with the Ten Commandments. The east window contains stained glass by Kempe, dating to around 1902.

Monuments are numerous, largely from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, positioned above the arcades. Notable examples include the monument to Robert Shaw (died 1770) with a plaque featuring a vase in a broken pediment, and that to Jonathan Acklon (died 1700) featuring a winged cherub and roses at the foot of a marble cartouche with alms and helm. The Cooke family monument, located to the north of the chancel, has a cherub beneath a cartouche.