Church Of St Nicholas

Church of St Nicholas

This is a parish church of outstanding historical importance, with building phases spanning the 12th to 18th centuries. The structure underwent foundation renewal in 1889 and restoration work in 1907 and 1926. The church is built in limestone ashlar with some coursed limestone rubble and lead roofs.

The church comprises a west tower and spire, a clerestoried nave, chancel, north and south aisles, and a south porch.

The west tower is of two stages, dating to the 14th century. It has a chamfered plinth and string courses, with stepped and gabled set-back buttresses. Above rises a tall crocketed broach spire featuring three tiers of gabled lucarnes (small windows) alternating in direction. The lower stages have paired trefoil lights, while the topmost stage has single lights—all with gables and finials. The belfry stage contains paired trefoil-headed louvered lights with quatrefoils in wave-moulded pointed surrounds. The west wall at ground level has a single matching window.

The south aisle's west wall contains a 14th-century two-light window with cusped ogee heads and a chamfered rectangular surround. The north aisle wall has a similar window but with a cambered and hollow-chamfered surround. The north aisle wall also displays three three-light and one two-light window matching the western example, plus a blocked pointed doorway with hollow moulded continuous surround. The 15th-century clerestorey has three two-light windows with trilobed heads and panel tracery in triangular-headed hollow-moulded surrounds.

The chancel's north wall contains a two-light 14th-century window with cusped ogee heads and wave-moulded rectangular surround. The fine five-light east window dates to the 14th century, featuring cusped flowing tracery forming quatrefoils and mouchettes, with a pointed wave-moulded surround and human head stops to the hollow-moulded head. The south wall of the chancel has a broad three-light 14th-century window with cusped ogee heads and a cambered wave-moulded surround.

The south aisle has a chamfered plinth, gabled buttresses, and plain parapet. To its east is a two-light window with cusped ogee heads and chamfered rectangular surround. To the south are three matching three-light windows with hollow-moulded surrounds. An ogee-headed, continuously moulded priest's door with crocketed gablet and pinnacles also adorns this wall. The south clerestorey matches its northern counterpart.

The gabled south porch features a pointed double-chamfered outer doorway. The west wall contains a cross-shaped embrasure window with two reset fragments of 12th-century chevron-decorated voussoirs. To the east is a 1926 window of two paired lancets, with two further voussoirs and a 12th-century waterleaf capital. The inner doorway is 14th-century, with a richly moulded head, floriate capitals, hollow-moulded head, and human head stops. An early 18th-century bolection-moulded and panelled softwood door is hung here.

Interior: The nave has three-bay arcades with circular piers and responds dating to the 12th century, except for one shafted pillar on the north side. The capitals are octagonal and embattled, with double-chamfered 13th-century arches. The 14th-century double-chamfered tower arch has moulded octagonal responds and shafts; above it the earlier nave pitch is still visible. The 14th-century braced tie-beam roof is supported on fluted stone corbels, and the aisle roofs match this design.

In the south aisle is a 13th-century trefoil-headed piscina with hobnail-decorated hood, and a 14th-century piscina with fluted basin, crockets to the undersides, cusped ogee head, and crocketed gable with finial. The north aisle wall contains an arched opening to the chancel with wave moulding, and the east wall has three statue brackets and a blocked rectangular squint. The north aisle holds a plain aumbry, two statue brackets, and a squint. The south wall has a broad round-headed chamfered arch into the chancel; on the eastern side of this is a circular piscina with human head support. The chancel arch has 12th-century circular responds—the southern with stiff-leaf foliage to the capital—and a pointed double-chamfered arch bearing traces of red and blue paint on the south side. The chancel south window sill contains a fluted piscina.

Fittings: The church contains widely spaced late 17th-century turned-baluster altar rails with moulded hand rail. A carved panelled 19th-century oak reredos stands behind the altar. A fine set of 14th-century bench ends display blank tracery, ears of corn, plants, rosettes, and a shield. A 13th-century circular tub font has pointed foliate panels to the sides and a band of foliage with human heads beneath. An oak chest made from 17th-century wainscotting stands in the nave, and the north aisle contains an oak chest with a reset 13th-century decorated panel in the front (featuring trilobes and cusped arches) and an early 18th-century oak raised and fielded panelled lid.

Monuments: The north aisle contains the matrix of a small brass to Isaac Laughton, who died in 1635.