Parish Church Of St Nicolas

The parish church of St. Nicolas is a building of group value, dating back to the 12th century, with significant extensions in the late 13th or early 14th century, and a tower built in the late 14th or earlier with 16th-century belfry windows. A late 14th-century nave was added, originally with a low-pitched, parapetted roof. A 19th-century restoration saw the replacement of 15th-century nave windows and the construction of a gable roof for the nave and a pyramidal roof for the tower.

The church is constructed of flint rubble, originally plastered with limestone and clunch dressings. The roofs are red plain tiles, with a parapet gable to the chancel, and remnants of a gable cross.

The south elevation features a two-stage tower with a chamfered string below the belfry and a chamfered plinth. It has two-light belfry windows with a four-centred red brick arch, originally plastered, and a pyramidal roof with a ball finial. The nave has two-stage buttresses and two 19th-century windows. A porch has a plinth, moulded eaves, and a two-centred arched doorway with cusped spandrels within a flat moulded label, featuring reused head stops. Traceried side lights are contained within a flat arch with solid lower panels. A south doorway shares details with the porch entrance and the north door. The original plank door has integral hollow chamfered ribs and v-grooves, fixed to a latticed back frame.

The chancel has two buttressed bays, with a 12th or early 13th-century priests' doorway consisting of one plain and one lightly chamfered order, topped with a two-centred arched head and chamfered impost. A 12th-century round arched window is situated to the north, with a roll moulded inner arch transitioning to shafted jambs with capitals and bases. Other windows include a 14th-century window to the east with reticulated tracery in a two-centred arch, a 16th-century east window, and a window to the west with two trefoiled lights, the arch masked by plaster. A tomb recess is located below.

Inside, the tower arch, dating from the late 14th or early 15th century, is two-centred with five chamfered and moulded orders. The coeval chancel arch has three moulded orders, with the two outer orders being chamfered with moulded caps and bases. A 12th-century internal string course runs along the western half of the north wall, with a fragment on the south wall. A piscina has ovolo moulded jambs, a two-centred head, and a foiled drain, dating from the 14th century. The font has an octagonal bowl with quatrefoil panels and a truncated octagonal stem, also dating from the late 14th century. The chancel roof is from the early 14th century and incorporates ashlar braced-collar rafters. Glass in the chancel includes grisaille foliation from the 14th century, fragments of 15th and 16th-century tabernacle work in the south window’s tracery, and a grisaille piece in situ. Memorial glass by Kempe and Tower, from around 1916, is in the east window.