Church Of St Nicholas

This outstanding parish church is one of the most remarkable in Essex, preserving exceptional Norman architecture alongside later medieval and Tudor additions.

Historical Development

The core of the church dates from circa 1180, comprising the chancel, nave, north and south aisles with clerestory. The eastern bays of both aisles were rebuilt in the 14th century. A north vestry was added in the 15th century. The 16th century saw significant additions: a red brick tower and a red brick porch with decorative diaper patterning. A 19th-century organ chamber was added, and the building underwent Victorian restorations. Construction is mainly flint rubble with stone dressings, roofed predominantly with red tiles and some lead.

The Chancel

The chancel features clasping buttresses at its eastern corners and a scratch sundial on the south wall. The east wall has two pilasters, the south wall one. Corbels on the north and south walls date from the 19th century. The windows are single lights with two-centred moulded heads and labels. Their jambs have attached shafts with moulded bases and foliated capitals: four windows to the south wall, three to the east, and three to the west wall, unified by a moulded string course beneath. The east wall windows have abaci moulding continuing as a string course. Above these eastern windows sits a large 12th-century wheel window with eight shafts featuring moulded bases and foliate capitals, with a string course below.

The southwestern door is blocked internally but retains its original 12th-century door of three boards with fine ironwork. The 12th-century doorway has a semi-circular arch of two richly carved orders with foliate and zig-zag ornament, a label with billet ornament, and jambs with two keeled attached shafts, moulded bases, and foliate capitals. A mason's mark stone is visible on the north-east wall.

Inside the chancel, the windows have moulded arches and labels. The window splays feature shafts with moulded bases, foliated capitals, and moulded abaci. Between the windows are recesses with keeled shafts with moulded bases and capitals. A moulded string course runs below the window cills. The chancel roof has seven cants with moulded wall plates.

The chancel door to the vestry is 15th-century, made of studded battens with strap hinges. The 15th-century vestry doorway has moulded jambs and a two-centred arch within a square head, with a moulded label over. A 12th-century rectangular niche in the north wall has rebated jambs and head.

The piscina and sedilia show considerable 19th/20th-century restoration. They have stepped bases with four semi-circular arched heads in line, decorated with ornate zig-zag, each supported by two shafts with moulded bases and foliated capitals.

The church contains a circa 1539 black marble altar tomb with polished top slab commemorating John de Vere, Fifteenth Earl of Oxford, and his wife Elizabeth Trussell. Two panels in high relief depict first a kneeling man in fluted plate armour and a woman with pedimental headdress and heraldic mantle, and second a coat of arms supported by heraldic beasts with helm and crest above. Both panels have mouldings and borders. The side slabs are panelled with kneeling figures of four daughters with names; the four sons against the wall are not visible.

The church possesses misericords, moulded and carved with many motifs, believed to be one of only two sets in Essex.

The two-centred chancel arch was possibly widened and rebuilt in the 14th century using both original and new material. It has two richly moulded orders with zig-zag ornament and matching label. The responds comprise three attached shafts, moulded bases with spur ornament, and waterleaf and stiff-leaf foliate capitals.

The 14th/15th-century chancel screen has six bays, the two centre bays forming a doorway with trefoiled sub-cusped head, crocketed with finials and tracery over. Similar side bays have closed lower panels with foliate bosses and spandrels, cinquefoil heads, moulded and buttressed posts, and moulded cornice with carved bosses.

The Vestry and Organ Chamber

To the north-east of the chancel stands the 15th-century vestry with lean-to roof and north-east buttress. The east wall has a two-light cinquefoil window under a square head and label (now blocked). A lancet window pierces the north wall, and 19th/20th-century doorways serve the north and west walls.

The 19th-century gabled organ chamber adjoins this vestry. It has a two-light window to the apex and four small lancets in a stone and flint panel below eaves level with string course and corbels.

The Nave and Aisles

The Norman nave and north and south aisles feature 15th/16th-century red brick crenellations with moulded string courses and crow-stepped parapet verges. The clerestory displays red brick sunken panels with alternating boar and mullet motifs of the de Vere family between six two-light segmental-headed windows with flat labels over on both north and south walls.

The south aisle has two 14th-century three-light windows with tracery under square heads. The 12th-century south doorway has jambs and semi-circular arch of three moulded orders. The jambs have attached shafts with moulded bases and spur ornament. Water-leaf and stiff-leaf foliage decorate the capitals with moulded abaci. The 12th-century door has counter-rebated plank edges and fine original ironwork. The 16th-century west window comprises two square-headed lights with chamfered label.

The north aisle's north wall has two three-light windows under square heads with labels. The 12th-century north doorway has a moulded semi-circular arch and jambs with keeled shafts with moulded bases and abaci and foliate capitals. The 12th-century door has fine original ironwork. Traces of a former porch are visible in the wall around the doorway. The 19th/20th-century west wall window has two lights under a square head with label, above which is a small blocked lancet.

Internally, the nave has aisles of six bays with semi-circular arches of two moulded orders, with labels to the south side. The piers are alternately circular and octagonal with square moulded abaci, foliate capitals, and moulded bases. The two eastern bays are exceptions, being 14th-century. The northern has a moulded segmental pointed arch springing from a head corbel on the east wall, whilst the southern arch of three chamfered orders springs from a moulded corbel. The 14th-century upper doorway to the former rood loft has a moulded two-centred arch and chamfered jambs and sits above the first pier of the north arcade.

The clerestory has 12th-century internal splays and semi-circular arches which were cut back in the 16th century when the brick windows were inserted. A 14th-century niche in the north wall has moulded jambs and trefoil head. A 12th-century or earlier stoup bowl with reversed animal head and foliate carving is set into a wall recess east of the south door. Seventeenth-century panelling in the south-east corner of the south aisle is surmounted by a small carved stone figure with raised arms and circular head, possibly 12th-century or earlier.

The nave roof is ascribed to Thomas Loveday, who died in 1535. It features double hammer beams with moulded purlins and upper hammer beams, crenellated and carved cornice and lower hammer beams. Carved pendants hang from collar beams. Traceried spandrels support curved braces. Buttresses with crocketed pinnacles and foliate pendants adorn the side posts. Above the wall plates, each bay has carved angels with outspread wings holding shields. The mullet and boar emblems of the de Vere family are also carved in this panelling.

The West Tower

The 16th-century west tower is of red brick, probably restored circa 1616. A stone over the west window is inscribed "Robert Archer the Master Builder of this stepell 1616". Of three stages, it is crenellated with four pinnacles and stepped buttresses. A south-east stair turret rises alongside. An 18th-century cupola is surmounted by a weathervane. The west window has transomed lights under a square head, above which the moulded label is enriched with heraldic emblems of the de Vere family. The stained glass windows depict ten saints. The north and south walls of the second stage have loop lights. All walls of the bell chamber have three four-centred lights under square heads. Small lights pierce the stair turret.

Inside the west tower, the stair turret doorway has double-chamfered jambs and moulded four-centred arch. A 17th-century door has strap hinges. The two-centred tower arch has three chamfered orders. The chamfered responds have moulded bases and foliate capitals to attached shafts, part of these shafts possibly 12th-century and re-set.

The South Porch

The 16th-century diapered red brick south porch is crenellated and buttressed. Two stone panels sit above a niche below the moulded string course. The moulded archway is four-centred with moulded responds. A plain rectangular stoup is set into the south-east external wall. The east and west windows have two lights under square heads, with inner cills continuing through to form seats.

Significance

The three Norman doors and doorways, the double hammer-beam roof and misericords, together with the Norman structure and later brick tower, make this church one of the most outstanding in Essex.