Church Of St Nicholas

Church of St Nicholas

Parish church of c1300, with clerestory added around 1500 and west tower rebuilt around 1700. The building was restored and partly rebuilt by G.E. Street between 1852 and 1855. The structure is constructed of coursed and squared stone blocks from the 14th century, with the remainder in ashlar, beneath plain tile roofs.

The church comprises a west tower, 3-bay nave, 3-bay chancel, north and south aisles, north and south chapels, south porch, and north-east vestry.

The west tower was rebuilt following the collapse of its spire on 23 November 1698. It rises in three stages marked by moulded strings, with rusticated pilaster strips to the west corners of the first stage, capped by scrolls, and rusticated quoins to the second and third stages. The lower stage features a round-headed west door with raised keystone flanked by panelled pilasters. The second stage has a blind panel above the west door, while the north and south sides are lit by circular windows with moulded surrounds and blind panels above. The third stage has windows to each side with 2 round-headed lights, moulded architrave and sill; the west side has a circular window below and a clock between the two lights. A balustraded parapet with panelled pedestals at the corners is capped by urn finials spouting flame.

The nave is lit by a clerestory of around 1500, containing pointed windows of 3 trefoiled lights. The north aisle dates to c1300 and features a central pointed door with half-roll and fillet moulded surround and roll and fillet hood mould terminating in heads. A 3-light window to the east has intersecting tracery with roll and fillet hood mould terminating in a head on the east side. A 3-light pointed window to the west has all lights with trefoiled heads—the central one pointed, the outer ones rounded—beneath a crenellated parapet. An 18th-century west window to the aisle has a round head, moulded architrave and raised key.

The south aisle was remodelled in the 19th century with windows of cusped intersecting tracery and hood moulds terminating in foliage. A gabled south porch of 19th-century date is timber-framed on an ashlar plinth with a cusped open arch, opening to a pointed south door of 2 orders with nook shafts and roll and fillet moulded arch, its hood mould terminating in foliage.

The north chapel (Hurst Chapel) and south chapel (Lady Chapel) are both 19th-century additions. The north chapel has windows in Decorated style tracery. The south chapel features triple lancet windows to the south side, while its east window has 5 lancets under a hood mould terminating in leaf decoration.

The chancel window contains 7 trefoil-headed lights with a circle above filled with geometrical figures.

The interior features nave arcades of c1300 with octagonal piers, moulded capitals and chamfered pointed arches. A 19th-century wooden chancel arch springs from stone corbels carved with naturistic foliage. A round-headed door leads to the west tower. The nave roof is of nearly flat 19th-century timber construction with moulded tie beams supporting a ridge piece and one pair of purlins. The 19th-century chancel and aisle roofs feature arch-braced collars, cusped in the sanctuary. The chancel has an alabaster screen wall with moulded alabaster caps to piers, a sedilia and piscina to the south, and an aumbry to the north.

The stone font dates to around 1700 and comprises a circular moulded base, cylindrical pedestal and gadrooned bowl in the form of an urn. The 19th-century carved choir stalls and 19th-century chancel arch are by Street. A 19th-century wooden altar rail rests on twisted wrought-iron standards with scrolled brackets and leaf decoration. A 19th-century stone table sits on marble columns. Two brass chandeliers of around 1820 and five brass lamps are present.

Monuments include a brass memorial to John Draycote, burgess of Abbots Bromley, who died in 1463; a 17th-century Warburton family memorial in marble, featuring a bracketed aedicule with a winged skull at the centre of the base flanked by cherubs, panelled pilasters decorated with cross-bones and hour-glasses, fishscale pilaster caps with torches on top, cherubs and a coat of arms above; and a memorial to John and Edward Vernon (died 1756 and 1780) with a shaped marble plaque, moulded cornice, surmounted by an obelisk containing a coat of arms.

The east window contains good stained glass by Burtison and Grylls. The church also houses reindeer horns, a hobby horse, and a crossbow used in the Abbots Bromley horn dance.