Parish Church Of St Nicholas

Parish Church of St Nicholas, Boston

This parish church on Fishtoft Road stands by the River Witham and is thought to predate the foundation of St Botolph's Church in Boston. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book.

The church dates from the 13th, 14th, 15th, 17th and 18th centuries, with major additions from 1869 to 1875 by Sir George Gilbert Scott. The tower was restored in 1899, and the chancel was rebuilt by L.T. Moore from 1933 to 1935.

The building is constructed of squared limestone rubble and ashlar with red brick, lead and plain tile roofs. It comprises a western tower, a nave with clerestory, aisles, chancel, north chapel and south vestry.

The three-stage tower has large corner buttresses, a double moulded plinth and chamfered string courses. Its battlemented parapet was replaced in the 18th century in brick, with crocketed ashlar corner pinnacles. A stair tower is positioned on the south side. The belfry stage on each side has a 15th-century two-light louvred opening with cusped lights, hollow moulded surround and hood mould. The south and north sides have plain lower stages and a simple two-light 17th-century opening beneath the belfry stage. A sundial appears on the south side. The west side has 19th-century double doors in a moulded surround with hood mould and above them a 19th-century five-light window in Perpendicular style in a hollow moulded late 14th-century surround.

The north aisle has a continuous sill band and plain moulded parapet concealing a lead roof, with a two-light 19th-century window at the west end. The exterior of the nave and aisles was refaced during the Gilbert Scott restoration. The south side of the aisle has plain gabled buttresses between pairs of 19th-century trefoil-headed lancets with plain surrounds. The two windows at the west end are two-light and in decorated style. The north door is a simple low pointed arch.

The nave clerestory has a plain parapet with corbelled support and five circular windows. The 19th-century vestry is low with a moulded parapet. Its north side has a two-light and three-light window, and its east end has a four-light window, all in 16th-century style. The pointed door has a hood mould. Set in the north wall is part of a 13th-century gravestone with a human head beneath a trefoil and part of a stiff leaf capital. At the rear end of the nave is an ashlar octagonal stair turret.

The chancel is in ashlar with a two-light and a three-light window on the north side. The east end has a five-light lancet window in thin 13th-century style. A stone at the base of the chancel records that it was destroyed in 1856 and restored in 1933. The south side has a reused three-light 17th-century window with cross mullion and cusped heads.

The south chapel is in ashlar with a flat three-light window. It lies in line with the south aisle, which is in square rubble and resembles the north aisle. The clerestory matches the north side.

The interior contains late 13th-century six-bay nave arcades with square piers having hollowed-out shafts in the four main directions, into which slender shafts with stiff leaf capitals are set. Some shafts are in Purbeck marble. Circular abaci and bases appear on the north side, square bases on the south side. Double-moulded pointed arches have roll-moulded outer moulding. The circular clerestory windows are set above the spandrels. The nave and aisles have a 19th-century roof with plain exposed timbers.

A tall continuously moulded late 14th-century tower arch rises with three steps up to the tower floor. A narrow door to the tower stair is in the west wall of the nave. A 19th or 20th-century arch leads to the east end of the aisles. An upper door to the rood loft is on the north side, and a small piscina appears on the north side of the chancel respond.

A broad pointed 19th-century chancel arch rests on 13th-century half-round shafts set on human head corbels. The chancel has a plain arch to the south chapel. Inner shafts frame the east window. A rood beam and crucifixion are present.

The fittings include a 1901 octagonal font with carved quatrefoils by J.O. Scott, and a tall elaborate wooden font cover that is partly 17th-century. An earlier font dated 1660 now serves as the base for the communion table. An octagonal Jacobean pulpit features flat cut-out cockerels supporting the reading ledge. The remains of a stone crucifix rest on a northern window sill. Two commandment boards and two deed boards are housed in the tower.

The stained glass in the north aisle dates from 1927 and is by Morris and Co. The stained glass in the south aisle dates from 1896 and is by Swaine, Bourne and Co.