Church Of St Nicholas

Church of St Nicholas

This parish church at Mavesyn Ridware is primarily a rebuild of 1782, though it retains its 13th-century north aisle and 15th-century tower. The fabric is a mix of 13th and 14th-century sandstone ashlar with 18th-century red brick laid in Flemish bond, beneath slate roofs. The plan comprises a three-bay nave and polygonal apse containing the chancel, with the north aisle terminated to the west by the tower.

The tower rises in three stages with a moulded parapet string, gargoyles, and crenellated parapet. The lower stages contain rectangular loops with chamfered surrounds. The belfry openings are 4-centred with cusped Y-tracery, hollowed surrounds, and hood moulds terminating in heads.

The south aisle features a pointed east window of three graded lancets. On the south side are a lancet and a 15th-century window of four lights beneath a 4-centred arch. A blocked south door with segmental arch has an inserted window above it.

The nave and chancel of 1782 are symmetrical with Gothic elements. They have a moulded plinth and eaves cornice. The windows are painted with hollow-moulded arches springing from moulded imposts, displaying Y-tracery and small leaded panes. The west doorway is pointed with a 2-leaf door and pilastered stone surround.

Interior

The 13th-century north arcade comprises three bays with octagonal columns carrying moulded capitals and pointed arches of two chamfered orders. A pointed tower arch opens towards the nave, flanked by engaged semi-octagonal columns. The chancel arch is pointed with three roll-moulded orders.

The nave is covered by a dentilled plaster ceiling with multiple roll-moulded order to a central panel. Over the chancel is a Gothick plaster vault with crocketed ogee arches springing from clustered and banded shafts. The north aisle has a plaster vault over an arch braced collar roof.

A 13th-century piscina survives in the north aisle, along with a lancet to the west that is blocked by the tower. This window is also visible from within the tower, where it bears a hood mould terminated by grotesque heads.

The fittings include a font of circa 1200 decorated with a wavy band of stiff leaf. There is a Gothic-style wooden pulpit of 1895 and an 18th-century cast-iron communion rail. Waist-high wooden wall panelling lines the nave and chancel.

Monuments and Chapel

The entire south aisle is occupied by the Mavesyn Chapel at a lower level than the nave, containing the family monuments. Around its walls are alabaster panels beneath cusped arches on clustered columns, incised with effigies of medieval ancestors. These panels, however, date to the late 18th or early 19th century, as they are not recorded in Stebbing Shaw's engravings of the chancel from 1785. Three small alabaster reliefs depicting battles fought by Mavesyns are of similar date.

Two chest tombs contain incised alabaster slabs. The central tomb is that of Sir Robert Mavesyn, died 1403 at the Battle of Shrewsbury, though the effigy is an 18th or 19th-century work. At the east end lies Thomas Cawarden, died 1593, and his wife Anne. The floor at the east end bears incised slabs to David Cardon and wife (died 1557), John Cordon and wife (died 1485), John Cordon (died 1477), and Hugh Davenport (died 1473).

The north wall contains two recesses holding recumbent effigies of knights, one of the 13th century and the other of the early 14th century. The chapel also displays a shield and pieces of armour, with heraldic shields covering the walls, some remaining blank.

In the nave is a 17th-century tablet containing two brasses, and a tablet to William Robinson, died 1771, decorated with an obelisk and draped urn above.

The east window of the Mavesyn chancel, dated 1870, is of stained glass depicting former Mavesyns and heraldic shields.

The church is listed Grade I as a complete example of a late 18th-century church rebuilding, with the notable addition of a very rare late 18th and early 19th-century conversion of a medieval aisle into a family chapel with neo-medieval fittings and monuments.