Church Of St Nicholas

Church of St Nicholas

Parish church built in 1839 by Sir George Gilbert Scott and William Bonington Moffatt, said to be their first church. The building was restored and a baptistry added between 1879 and 1890. The chancel and north aisle were added in 1908 by Charles Henry Fowler.

The church is built of dressed stone and brick with ashlar dressings and slate roofs, employing Early English and Early Decorated styles throughout. Pointed arched windows are a dominant feature.

The plan comprises a south-west tower with spire, a nave and chancel with clerestory under a continuous roof, aisles, transepts, and vestries. The exterior features a chamfered plinth, buttresses, eaves and string course, and coped gables with crosses.

The tower rises in three stages with angle buttresses, chamfered plinth, and string courses. To the west is a double rebated doorway with hoodmould, above which are two windows with hoodmoulds. The south side has a blocked two-light window. The second stage has a single lancet to west and south. The bell stage has blind arcaded south and west sides with two-light bell openings with shafts, while the north and east sides have similar plain openings, all with hoodmoulds. An octagonal spire rises above, featuring two tiers of lucarnes and a weather vane.

The nave's west end has a sill band and single buttress to the north, a roll-moulded doorway with shafts and hoodmould, three stepped lancets with shafts and linked hoodmould, and a round window above. The clerestory spans four bays with pilasters and dentilled eaves, containing four lancets on each side.

The chancel occupies two bays. To the north is a lancet and side wall stack. The east end has a sill band and stepped triple lancet with hoodmould. The south side has a sill band and four windows with linked hoodmoulds.

The north aisle contains five bays with five two-light windows plus one in the west end, all with Decorated tracery and hoodmoulds. The south aisle spans four bays with four two-light windows with linked hoodmoulds. The north transept has two lancets; the south transept has two lancets to the east and, to the south, a doorway and stepped triple lancet, all with hoodmoulds. A north-east vestry, set within a blocked archway, features a flat roof, parapet, and lancet to the north.

Internally, the nave has five-bay arcades with octagonal piers, double chamfered arches, and shaft imposts to the west. A clerestory sill band and panelled gabled ceiling run above. The chancel, entered without an arch, has a sill band and stepped impost band. A coped screen wall with wrought-iron railing and gates divides it from the nave. The north side contains a blocked archway; the east end displays a late 19th-century stained glass window; and the south side has a piscina. The chancel roof is ribbed and panelled barrel vaulted with a billeted wall plate.

The north aisle's west end contains a baptistry with sill band and blind arcade of four bays, relocated from the east end. A double chamfered half-arch at the east end supports a roof with arch braces. The south aisle has a stained glass south-east window of 1926 and a chamfered doorway to the tower at its west end. The east end has a stilted arch to the transept and a plain lean-to roof.

The north transept contains a double chamfered arch framing the organ. The south transept is similar but also features a traceried wooden screen and reredos with stained glass windows from 1889 and 1879. Both transepts have plain double purlin roofs.

19th-century fittings include an octagonal font, an octagonal oak skeleton pulpit with sounding board, panelled oak stalls, and plain benches. Memorials comprise brasses from 1901 and 1928.