Church Of St Nicholas

Church of St Nicholas, Carlton Scroop

This is a parish church of exceptional architectural importance, built and rebuilt over many centuries from the 12th to 19th century. It is constructed of coursed limestone rubble and ashlar with slate roofs, and comprises a west tower, nave with north and south aisles, south porch, chancel, and vestry.

The west tower is the most prominent feature. Its lowest stage dates from the 12th century and is built of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar clasping pilaster buttresses of the same period. It contains a round-headed 12th-century window in its west wall. The upper two stages are of ashlar and probably date from around 1632, when the castellated top was completed — this date is inscribed on the south parapet. These stages include re-used 14th-century windows: a pointed-headed light on the west side of the middle stage, a single trefoil-headed light to the south, and in the belfry stage paired ogee-headed lights with quatrefoils. The northern light in the belfry is a 17th-century copy of a 13th-century double opening.

The north aisle is distinguished by a blocked 12th-century doorway with chamfered head and drip mould, and contains double 14th-century lights matching those in the tower. The north wall features a 15th-century triple light with 19th-century ogee-headed tracery and a flat drip mould with human-headed label stops. The north side is finished in good 19th-century dressed limestone rubble, except for the lower chancel walls which retain coursed rubble.

The chancel's east wall displays a particularly fine 14th-century four-light window with developed Y-tracery, ogee-headed lights, and a moulded hood mould with foliate label stops. The south chancel wall was substantially rebuilt in the 19th century but retains a recut 13th-century door and window, plus a recut three-light 15th-century ogee-headed window with quatrefoils; the lower parts of the hood mould are original.

The south aisle's east wall contains paired lights matching the tower. Its south wall, built in ashlar, holds a three-light 15th-century window with cusped trefoil heads, a flat hood mould, and human-headed label stops — a rather earlier type than other triple lights in the building.

The south porch is fundamentally 13th-century with a fine ribbed stone roof internally, supported on four ribs. The outer arch beneath a hood mould is finely and deeply moulded with faceted jambs and two nook shafts to the outer jambs, a chamfered inner arch, and is surmounted by a coped gable with a cross. Low side benches and paired 13th-century side lights remain intact. However, the porch also bears a date of 1616 in its gable, suggesting a restoration or reconstruction at that time, and the roof with imitation stone Roman tiles may date from this phase. There is evidence too of 19th-century restoration.

Interior

The nave has north and south arcades of two bays with matching octagonal piers and double-chamfered arches. The tower arch is massive and of four orders — three steps and a single half roll on the underside — with capitals that are either recut or show unfinished floral design. The hood mould is reeded on the outer face and has later-looking quatrefoils on the underside with human-headed label stops and a further projecting head over the keystone. A 15th-century four-centred doorway to the rood loft opens from the north aisle. A 13th-century piscina exists in the south wall of the same aisle.

The south aisle contains a 14th-century piscina in its south wall with a cusped trefoil head, and two 14th-century statue niches in the east wall. The east window displays 19th-century glass, while the west window is a First World War commemorative window. Both aisles retain 16th-century roofs with moulded principal timbers.

The chancel appears to have been shortened in antiquity, as a 13th-century double piscina on the south side is now partly concealed by the south end of the east wall. Both piscinae have a flat lintel supported by a single octagonal shaft with a foliate capital and fluted basins. Sedilia to the west of the piscina feature a low arched head. A 19th-century aumbry occupies the north wall.

The east window's upper parts contain fine 14th-century glass, partly brought from elsewhere. Two panels depict the donor and his wife — unusually dressed as a nun — presenting a shield of arms to Christ in Majesty. The lower panels show at the centre a coat of arms, with four foliate trefoils and abstract and panelled patterns filling the remainder. A 19th-century arch to the vestry opens in the north wall.

A 17th-century oak pulpit with panelled sides decorated with half paterae stands on an arcaded base with turned pendents. The 14th-century font sits on a square base with stop chamfers; its octagonal bowl is richly traceried in each panel. The easternmost pair of pews in the north aisle are crude late 15th-century poppyheads; seven others are 16th-century with plain shouldered ends and rolled taps.

Monuments and Furnishings

A good black marble tombstone dated 1699 lies beneath the south aisle altar. Three spirited though barbarous early 18th-century wall tablets occupy the south aisle, decorated with urns, death's heads, cherubs, and pyramidal pinnacles. A marble wall plaque on the north wall of the north aisle commemorates John Peachell, Gent., who died in 1727; it features an open pediment, urns, and a floriated cartouche containing painted arms.