Church Of St Nicholas

The Church of St Nicholas is a parish church dating from 1845, designed by Charles Kirk of Sleaford in the Decorated style. It is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar quoins and dressings, set beneath slate roofs with decorative ridge tiles. Stone coped gables feature crosses fleury. The church comprises a nave, chancel, north aisle, a north-western tower, and a spire.

The west end of the nave features a five-light window with cusped flowing tracery, above a pointed half window with three trefoils. A three-light north aisle west window also has trefoil detailing in the gable. The four-stage tower has a plinth, moulded string courses, a plain parapet, and stepped corner buttresses with crocketed gablettes and richly crocketed pinnacles. A set-back spire displays three tiers of alternating lucarnes. The pointed doorway has paired shafted reveals with annular capitals to the inner doorway, which has filleted orders and shafts with foliated capitals. A porch features two grotesque gargoyles and an angel corbel. The belfry stage has paired lights with shafted reveals. A two-light window on the north side has a deeply moulded surround and reticulated tracery, supplemented by a small trefoil-headed light above. A similar light is also present on the east side. The north aisle exhibits a fleuron frieze and two two-light windows with reticulated tracery. The east end mirrors the west. A gabled vestry has an external wall stack with an octagonal shaft and decorated cornice; its east window is three lights. The chancel features a four-light window with elaborate flowing tracery. The south wall has two two-light windows with flowing tracery, and a small pointed priests’ door. In the nave’s eastern gable is a pointed half window with cusped trilobes. The south side of the nave includes four three-light windows with flowing tracery, subdivided by stepped buttresses. A frieze inscription records the church’s dedication in 1845.

Inside, a four-bay north nave arcade has filleted quatrefoil piers with annular capitals and double-chamfered arches, matching the chancel arch. A shouldered doorway in the east wall provides access to the pulpit, with a corresponding door on the south side. Further doorways in the north chancel wall lead to the pulpit and vestry. Stained glass is present in the east window, designed by T. F. Curtis in 1918. Other fittings include commandment boards in Gothick panels, a timber glazed screen with trefoil-headed panels surrounding the entrance porch, and an octagonal font with shield side panels and a clustered shafted stem. A substantial wall memorial to William and Nicholas Clarke Stevenson, founders of the church, who died in 1843 and 1844, is located on the north wall of the chancel. The memorial is in the form of a Gothic tomb recess with a cusped ogee arched top, a crocketed canopy, and pinnacles. The parish of Deeping St Nicholas was created in 1846 following the draining of the surrounding Fen.