Church Of St Nicholas

Church of St Nicholas

Parish church of early 16th-century date, built in red brick with ashlar dressings and restored in 1859. The church stands at Lowgate, Lutton.

The building comprises a tower, nave with aisles, south porch, chancel and north vestry. Lead roofs cover most of the structure, with plain tile roofing to the chancel, vestry and porch. Gables have ashlar coping with single ridge crosses to the east chancel and porch, and a single 20th-century stack rises from the north chancel.

The tower is diagonal buttressed with a southwest buttress bearing a 18th-century memorial. A stair turret projects from the northeast corner. The tower is embattled with single corner squat finials and two gargoyles to each side (except the west). It is topped with an ashlar spire of three stages with bands, set on a moulded and chamfered plinth. The spire has a single tier of two-light gabled lucarnes.

The west front features a single pointed segmental arched window with two arched and cusped lights above and below a single transom, cusped panel tracery, hood mould, and grotesque head label stops, with a flush ashlar quoin surround and continuous sill band. Above, on the west, north and south sides, are single irregular trefoils with panelled spandrels and Tudor hood moulds.

The bell chamber has four pointed arched two-light windows with cusped reticulated tracery, hood mould and label stops. A clock face sits over the south side.

The northwest aisle is set on a chamfered ashlar and brick plinth and has a single arched two-light 19th-century window with cusped panel tracery. The north wall is buttressed with a single arched two-light window with cusped panel tracery and flush ashlar quoin surround. A chamfered arched doorway with hood mould and plank door opens to the left, with two similar windows to the far left. The east wall continues with a single similar larger two-light window with flush ashlar quoin surround. The clerestory contains eight two-light brick windows with arched and cusped lights and plate tracery under flat arches, with a continuous Tudor hood mould.

The north chancel is set on a deep brick and chamfered ashlar plinth and has a single 19th-century arched two-light window with cusped flowing tracery and flush ashlar quoin surround. A lean-to vestry with further projection extends from the left, both with single doorways containing plank doors. An east vestry has a single 19th-century arched two-light window with cusped reticulated tracery and flush ashlar quoin surround.

The east chancel has a single arched 19th-century three-light window with cusped tracery, hood mould and label stops, plus a small circular opening above. The south chancel has a single 19th-century arched two-light window with cusped flowing tracery, hood mould and label stops. An ashlar memorial with angel's head stands to the right. A chamfered pointed arched doorway opens to the left, with a further ashlar memorial of 1770 (decorated with angels' heads and drapery under an open pediment) positioned high on the far left.

The east wall of the south aisle has a single restored arched window with three arched and cusped lights, cusped panel tracery and hood mould, with a decorative 18th-century ashlar memorial to the left. The buttressed south wall contains two 19th-century arched three-light windows with cusped panel tracery, hood mould and label stops. The gabled and buttressed porch has a chamfered brick arch with ashlar hood mould and human head label stops, with an inner moulded arched doorway and hood mould. A single similar 19th-century window sits to the left.

The west end of the south wall and west wall stand on a chamfered brick and ashlar plinth. The west wall has a single 19th-century arched two-light window with cusped tracery. The clerestory matches the north in design.

Interior features include four-bay nave arcades of ashlar with moulded arches, quatrefoil piers and moulded capitals. An ashlar tower arch with chamfered jambs and moulded arch opens to the nave. An ashlar chancel arch with circular responds, moulded capitals and double chamfered arch separates the chancel. The east wall of the north aisle retains steps and an archway to a former rood loft. The north chancel contains a 19th-century decorative piscina and a chamfered pointed arched vestry doorway. The tower holds a pointed arched aumbry and a pointed segmental arched doorway (with a 17th-century plank door) to the stair turret.

A 19th-century reredos occupies the chancel. Furnishings include 18th-century turned altar rails, a 1702 hexagonal pulpit with staircase (the shaped and carved panels further decorated with marquetry, given by Dr Busby of Westminster School), a 17th-century alms chest, and an 18th-century hexagonal table top decorated with marquetry. A 16th-century octagonal font has a bowl with a lower frieze of fleurons and a base with decorative motifs.

The west nave shows evidence of a former roof line. The present 16th-century roof features moulded beams and carved bosses supported on octagonal pilasters running between the clerestory windows. A continuous sill band runs across the clerestory. Aisle roofs retain 16th-century moulded beams.

The south chancel wall bears a memorial to Austine Daniell with flanking damaged fluted pilasters topped by a broken pediment containing a cartouche.

Lutton developed as an established Anglo-Saxon settlement by the sea by the 8th century. During the 13th century, reclamation from the receding sea provided fertile land for grazing and agriculture. The village was historically part of the estates of the Duchy of Lancaster. Before the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the Church of St Nicholas belonged to the ecclesiastical estates of the Cluniacs of Castle Acre Priory, Norfolk. Evidence suggests a parochial chapel was built elsewhere in the village during the 12th century, with land gifted around a century later providing the site for the present church.

The church is nationally significant as one of fewer than 150 surviving examples of pre-Reformation church brickwork in England. Most such examples are individual components rather than complete buildings. St Nicholas Church is built almost wholly of brick and unusually incorporates clerestory windows of cut brick rather than the more typical stone dressings to window openings.