Church of St Nicholas is a Grade II* listed building in the Malvern Hills local planning authority area, England. First listed on 25 March 1968. A Norman Church.
Church of St Nicholas
- WRENN ID
- forgotten-chalk-saffron
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Malvern Hills
- Constituency
- West Worcestershire MP: Dame Harriett Baldwin (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 25 March 1968
- Type
- Church
- Period
- Norman
- Address
- Church of St Nicholas, Earl's Croome
- OS grid reference
- SO 870 420
- Coordinates
- 52.07644, -2.19058
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Nicholas is a Grade II* listed building that dates back to the Norman period, with later alterations and a west tower added in 1832. It is constructed from blue lias stone, with some red sandstone dressings and 19th-century Bath stone dressings. The church consists of a nave and chancel, with the nave walls incorporating the west tower.
The tower is three stages high, built of squared rubble stone, featuring string courses and battlements. The west door is designed in a Neo-Norman style, with a two-light window above it. The top stage of the tower has two-light pointed windows on three sides. The nave has four windows on the south side, including one 15th-century renewed two-light window, one 19th-century two-light window, and a crude 13th-century two-light window with a cusped top-light, blue lias tracery, and a Norman rear arch. The north side mirrors this with a similar window, a 19th-century two-light window, and a two-light Decorated window with a quatrefoil head, featuring red sandstone tracery.
Each side of the nave has a blocked fine Norman doorway, consisting of one order of columns with a roll-mould and a zig-zag round arch. The nave roof, dating from the 19th century, includes knee braces and a collar. A fine Norman chancel arch features zig-zag moulding and abaci that continue as imposts, with carved decoration including a lion on the south abacus and zig-zag single shafts.
The chancel has a small Norman gable light with pattern carving on the outside and a patterned string course below. The windows have deep splayed Norman reveals, with a two-light cusped late 13th-century east window tracery, a round-arched north window, and a flat-headed window on the south side with crude two-light wooden tracery, along with one single early 13th-century light. The chancel has a plain 19th-century roof.
Inside, there is a Jacobean pulpit and remade 17th-century panelling in the sanctuary and choir stalls. The east window dates from 1864 and is of good quality, alongside a south nave window from around 1860-1861. There is also a remnant of a medieval wooden door at the south door.
Local climate
Church of St Nicholas receives an average of 740 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 74% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 65% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 37 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 70% of listed buildings. Of these, 17 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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