Church Of St Nicholas

The Church of St. Nicholas is a largely 14th-century church, with a lower tower stage dating to the 13th century and an upper stage from the 15th century. A major restoration was undertaken in 1872 by G.G. Scott, along with the addition of a porch and vestry. The church is constructed of coursed squared limestone with red sandstone quoins and dressings, featuring old tile roofs with ridge cresting to the chancel and a moulded parapet to the nave. It consists of a chancel, nave, south aisle, porch, north vestry, and west tower.

The chancel’s east wall was largely rebuilt in the 18th and 19th centuries using red brick with large brick and stone diagonal buttresses. East windows in the chancel and aisle have three lights with bar tracery, the chancel window featuring a hood mould with head stops. The south aisle has a restored doorway with a plank door and strap hinges, and an open-fronted timber porch with glazed sides. A clerestory on the south side features paired trefoiled lights, while the north side of the nave has pairs of trefoiled lancets. The vestry has paired trefoiled lancets to the east and a doorway to the west.

The two-stage tower’s first stage has massive sandstone clasping buttresses on the west side and limestone buttresses on the east. The second stage has Tudor-arched, two-light traceried bell openings, paired to the south, with blind traceried reveals and hood moulds. The tower is crowned by a moulded cornice and embattled parapet with pinnacles, renewed in 1976. Fragments of gargoyles are also present.

Inside, the chancel contains an arched aumbry. The chancel roof is scissor-braced with scrolled spandrels and features two 14th-century head corbels. The chancel arch has two chamfered orders, with half-octagonal responds and moulded capitals. The nave has a moulded queen post roof with curved braces. The south arcade consists of two chamfered orders with octagonal piers, responds and moulded capitals. A west organ gallery is situated in the aisle, which also has a restored ogee piscina. Fittings, including a pulpit, altar rails, screen, stalls, and pews, are of approximately 1872 date, along with the encaustic tile floor in the chancel. Stained glass in the east window commemorates Colonel Biddulph, who died in the Indian mutiny of 1857. The 1872 restoration cost £2,000.