Church Of St Nicholas

This parish church dates mainly from the late 14th and early 15th centuries, with restoration in the 19th century. It is built of stone rubble, partly plastered, with dressings of limestone and clunch, and roofed with handmade red clay tiles, slates and lead. The nave and west tower are late 14th century, the chancel early 15th century, the north chapel and south porch later 15th century, and the north vestry early 16th century, altered in the late 19th century.

Chancel

The chancel is externally plastered and has a 19th-century east window. In the north wall stands an early 15th-century window of two cinquefoiled lights with vertical tracery in a two-centred head with moulded label (one jamb restored) and a hollow-chamfered segmental rear-arch. Further west is a 19th-century archway to the 16th-century north vestry. The south wall contains two windows: the eastern is similar to that in the north wall but much restored; the western has one cinquefoiled light in a square head with recessed spandrels outside and inside, set lower in the wall, and is early 15th century.

The early 15th-century chancel arch is two-centred, of two chamfered orders. The responds each have a semi-octagonal attached shaft with moulded capital and base. North of the arch is a plain squint.

The chancel roof spans two bays and is seven-canted, plastered to the soffit, with a moulded tiebeam, moulded and crenellated wallplates, and a crownpost of unusual quatrefoil section with fillets on and between each foil, and four-way rising braces. The wallplates return along the east wall to the east window.

North Vestry

The north vestry has in its east wall a reset 15th-century window of two cinquefoiled lights under a square head with moulded label. In the north wall is a 15th-century window of one light similar to that in the south wall of the chancel. Further west is a 19th-century doorway incorporating old material. The west wall contains a doorway with wooden frame and two-centred arch with recessed spandrels.

Nave

The nave has a moulded plinth and crenellated parapet. In the north wall is a later 15th-century four-centred archway of two hollow-chamfered orders, dying onto the hollow-chamfered responds. Further west is a late 14th-century window of three trefoiled lights with tracery in a segmental head, with a restored moulded label. Further west still is a late 14th-century doorway with moulded jambs and two-centred arch, converted to a window.

The south wall has two windows uniform with that in the north wall, but much restored. Above the westernmost is the mark of an 18th-century segmental head. Further west is the late 14th-century south doorway, with moulded jambs and two-centred arch. The splays have shallow sockets for a draw-bar. The two door-leaves are late 14th century, with double-ogee moulded ribs and side-frames, and a rivetted rear portcullis frame, the rails dovetailed to the side-frames, with two iron hooks for the draw-bar (illustrated in C.A. Hewett, Church Carpentry, 1982, page 91). The roof is ceiled to a segmental arch.

North Chapel

The north chapel has a moulded plinth and string course and a plain parapet. In the east wall, above the 16th-century doorway, is a blocked window with a segmental rear-arch. The north wall contains an early 16th-century brick window of two lights in a four-centred head with a moulded label; the jambs and mullion are restored. The west wall has a 15th-century window of two lights similar to that in the north wall of the chancel, restored.

The 15th-century roof is of low-pitched lean-to form, with three moulded principal rafters, two moulded purlins, and moulded wallplates. Arched braces spring to the central principal from wall-pieces terminating in carved heads of a man and a woman.

West Tower

The west tower is of three stages, with a moulded plinth, two moulded string courses and a crenellated parapet. The late 14th-century tower-arch is two-centred, of two hollow-chamfered orders dying onto the side walls. The early 14th-century west window has two trefoiled ogee lights with a quatrefoil in a two-centred head with moulded label and head-stops.

The second stage has a plain rectangular opening in the south and west walls. The bell-chamber has in each wall a window of two lights, cinquefoiled on the west side and trefoiled on the others, with square heads and minor restoration. The floor of the bell-chamber is original, of plain joists with a framed bellway, and there are traces of a former floor to the second stage. The low-pitched roof retains one heavy ridge-beam.

South Porch

The late 14th-century porch has a moulded string course. The outer archway has moulded jambs and two-centred arch with moulded label and defaced headstops. The side walls each have a window of two trefoiled lights under a square head, without labels. The roof is ceiled; some profiled sprockets are visible, implying that the original rafters are present. The gable is plastered.

Fittings

A 15th-century piscina in the south wall of the north chapel has moulded jambs and cinquefoiled two-centred arch in a square head with traceried spandrels; the drain is destroyed. The font is octagonal with panelled bowl, the panels alternately filled with roses and shields (one with a plain cross, of which the arms are mutilated), moulded upper and lower edge, buttressed stem and hollow-chamfered base, dating from the late 15th or early 16th century. In the south porch is a mutilated recess for a stoup. Fragments of 13th- and 15th-century glass survive in the north window of the nave, and of 14th- to 16th-century glass in the north window of the north chapel.

Brasses

Reset on boards in the north chapel are brasses:

(1) Part of the border of a large Flemish brass, circa 1375, engraved on both sides with figures of apostles and winding ribbon with portions of the Creed in Latin, the background richly ornamented with conventional vine leaves and bunches of grapes. On one side are seated figures of the Virgin and Child, St Philip, St Bartholomew, and symbols of St Mark and St Luke. On the reverse is an abandoned design with the figures of St James the Less and St Thomas and symbols of St Luke and Mark.

(2) John de Boys, 1419: figure in plate armour with feet on lion (upper part of helmet and parts of sword missing, broken below the knee-pieces and at the left ankle) and Margaret (Battail) his wife, figure with veiled head-dress and long gown, with a lap-dog at her feet; inscription plate missing.

(3) Katherine, wife of Thomas Darcy, 1535: figure with pedimental head-dress, gown with square neck-line, partlet, tight sleeves with fur cuffs, with pomander hanging from jewelled clasp of belt (both lower corners and a small part of right arm missing). On the reverse is part of an abbot or bishop in vestments, circa 1400.

(4) Anthony Darcy, 1540: figure with flat-topped helmet and plate gorget, with feet on greyhound; described as "crude local workmanship, copied from the brass of John de Boys, the style of armour an incongruous mixture of that of the early 15th century and the mid-16th century". The inscription plate in English is of superior workmanship with elaborate floral border. On the reverse is an inscription to Robert le Wale and Maud his wife, both died 1362, and two shields of arms (with on the reverse, 15th-century figures of priests).

(5) Philippa, wife of Thomas Darcy, 1559: figure with French hood, overgown with short puffed and slashed sleeves, plain undergown with small ruffs at neck and wrists, and ribbon ties, and suspended ornament inscribed IHS, with inscription in Latin.

(6) Thomas Darcy of Langbrooks (now Limesbrook Farm), 1624/5: inscription only.

Also present is a large stone slab with indents corresponding with the brass of Anthony Darcy, four shields and the Flemish border (N. Briggs, The Brasses of the Darcy family at Tolleshunt D'Arcy, Essex, Transactions of the Monumental Brass Society, IX, part VII, October 1960, pages 338-53).

Monuments

In the south wall of the chancel is a recessed and canopied tomb of Sussex marble. The tomb has been cut down to form a seat. The canopy has shafted and panelled jambs, flat arch with traceried spandrels, quatrefoiled frieze with crenellated cresting, soffit and reveals of recess panelled, and at back indents of a cross, inscription plate and four shields. The front of it, with moulded base, three recessed diamonds, and indents for three brasses, is reset in the north wall of the chancel. It has been identified as the tomb of Thomas Darcy, 1558, and his third wife Elizabeth (Munday), 1559, erected by Robert Bedingfield, her second husband (N. Briggs, above). The slab, much worn, is in the south porch.

On the north wall of the north chapel is a monument to Thomas Darcy, 1593, and Camylla (Guycciardyne), his wife, of marble, with moulded and gadrooned base having thereon a kneeling figure of man in armour and wife at prayer-desk, set in a recess flanked by square pilasters and surmounted by obelisks and an achievement of arms. In front of the base are figures of three sons and six daughters.

Bells

There are six bells: the third and fourth by Pack and Chapman, 1772, and the fifth and tenor by Gardiner, 1755.