Church Of St Nicholas

Church of St Nicholas

A parish church with origins in the early 13th century, subsequently altered and extended during the 14th and 15th centuries. The building was largely rebuilt between 1846 and 1850 by R C Carpenter for Thomas Thorp, Archdeacon of Bristol, with the exception of the west tower, which was restored in 1879. The church is constructed in part from lime-stone rubble with ashlar dressings and in part from limestone ashlar, with plain tiled roofs.

The plan comprises a west tower, a four-bay aisled nave with opposing doorways and a south porch, and a two-bay chancel with a south vestry. The building is executed in the Decorated style.

The west tower rises in three stages with a chamfered plinth and strings. The two lower stages date from the early 18th century, while the belfry stage and diagonal west corner buttresses with offsets were added in the late 15th century. The lower stage contains a two-light west window with round-headed lights, a square head and a hoodmould with returns, a small rectangular light above, and lancets in the north and south elevations. The second stage features a west clock face and two-light windows with round-headed lights to north and south. The belfry stage displays two-light louvred bell chamber openings with square heads and hoodmoulds, an embattled parapet with crocketted corner pinnacles and a tall weathervane.

The nave aisles have separate gabled roofs, chamfered plinths and moulded eaves cornices enriched with grotesque beasts' heads and foliated detail. The north aisle is buttressed with a diagonal west corner buttress with offsets and two further buttresses on its north side. Its windows comprise a two-light west end window and three north windows, all with hoodmoulds featuring human head stops. The north doorway is of three moulded orders, has a hoodmould with foliated stops and an additional pointed moulding above. The large east end window is of three lights with similar detailing. The south aisle has a diagonal corner buttress, three other buttresses on its south side and a sill string. It contains a cusped lancet with hoodmould and beast head stops at the west end, three three-light windows with human head stops to each hoodmould in the south elevation, and a five-light east window with returns to its hoodmould.

The south porch is gabled and timber-framed on an ashlar base, with scalloped bargeboards and a pointed archway flanked by cusped pointed open panels. Pairs of similar two-light panels flank each side; these panels were glazed in 1980. The south doorway within is of three orders, the central order shafted with a hoodmould featuring human head stops.

The chancel has a gable-end parapet with a cross finial and a moulded eaves cornice matching that of the aisles, beneath which runs a ballflower frieze. The sill string continues from the south aisle at a lower level. Diagonal east end buttresses with offsets and a central south buttress provide support. The four-light east window has a hoodmould with human head stops. A two-light window at the western end of the north elevation has a hoodmould with returns. The south elevation contains two similar windows, a cusped lancet with human head stops to the hoodmould, and a pointed doorway. The north vestry is gabled with a chamfered doorway, a cinquefoil light at its east end and a pair of cusped lancets in its east side elevation.

Interior

The interior features four-bay pointed nave arcades of two orders supported on columns of quatrefoil section. The chancel arch follows similar detailing, though the tower arch is of simpler design. The nave roof is arch-braced with a collar truss, large paired wind-braces and a ballflower frieze at wall-plate level. The chancel has a painted barrel roof and painted and gilded nookshafts to the east and south-east window. The reredos and piscina are painted; the south-east window sill is stepped to form a sedilia. An ornately carved octagonal stone font and timber pulpit are present, as is a large parish chest in the south aisle. A corona by Hardman hangs at the nave crossing.

Memorials include a tomb recess with a marble mosaic memorial to Thomas Thorp (died 1877) in the north wall of the chancel, an early 19th-century memorial to Anna Parsons, and numerous 18th and 19th-century ledger slabs in the north aisle. The chancel glass is by Willement, with additional glass by Hardman in the north aisle.

Historical Context

The rebuilding of the medieval church proved highly controversial, particularly as Thorp supported the Oxford Movement and established a high-church tradition at Kemerton.