Church Of St Nicholas

Parish Church of St Nicholas

The Church of St Nicholas is a parish church in Rawreth with a 15th-century west tower. The main body of the church was rebuilt circa 1882 under Reverend E. Geldart at a cost of £2,500. The rebuild comprised a chancel, nave, north and south aisles, north porch, and south chapels, constructed upon the foundations of the former church using some original materials. The south aisle was demolished due to damage sustained during the Second World War.

The church is built primarily of ragstone with limestone and blue Bathstone dressings, supplemented by red brick and flint flushwork. The roofs are red plain tiles.

The chancel's east wall features right and left buttresses, a flint flushwork band, and a five-light tracery window with a label that continues to form a band. A band runs below the window. The north wall contains two centrally positioned buttresses, two two-centred arched windows with square labels over, and a four-centred arched window with two ogee lights and tracery above a label. The north aisle includes a small triangular bay window to the east with a pointed roof and flint flushwork decoration, and two chamfered four-light windows with square heads to the north wall. The north gabled and buttressed porch features a moulded two-centred arch with shields to right and left and a square label over. A niche in the gable contains a figure of a saint. Two attached two-centred arched doorways with shafted jambs lead inward. The nave's north wall displays five clerestorey two-light ogee windows in square heads and a flint flushwork parapet. A small bell turret sits to the east.

The west tower, dating from the 15th century, has undergone recent restoration of its crenellations and upper storey. It retains old gargoyles to each angle and a restored moulded band. A plinth and central band run horizontally. Trefoiled two-light belfry windows with labels appear on each face, some restored. A square opening sits below the southern window. An angled south stair turret with a hipped roof rises to clerestorey height. The west face displays a trefoiled two-light window with a label below the belfry window, a three-light window with tracery under a two-centred arch and moulded label, and a two-centred arched doorway with a label. The south wall is plastered and contains two two-light windows set into the blocked former south aisle, with a clerestorey above matching the north wall. A gabled north chancel has two small trefoiled windows and angle buttresses. A lean-to chamber to the west of the chapel has a chamfered square-headed doorway.

The interior chancel features a barrel-vaulted roof with three pairs of moulded ribs and end ribs. A pierced and crenellated ashlar plate runs above the walls. The sanctuary floor is laid with coloured tiles. A 19th-century piscina and dropped-cill sedilia are present. A 19th-century painted triptych reredos has a carved wooden frame and stone base. The 19th-century altar features carved painted panels between buttresses. A moulded two-centred arch leads to the south chapel. Carved bench ends survive. Four brasses commemorate Edmund Tyrell and his wife of Beaches (1576), Thomas Hasteler and his wife of Rawreth Hall and Burrells (1527), Rebecca Listeny (1602), and Richard Hayes (1600). A 16th-century oak chest is preserved. The chancel screen has lower crenellated panels and a later traceried head. A moulded two-centred chancel arch features moulded capitals and bases on chamfered jambs.

The nave has a four-cant roof with carved arched collar braces on stone corbels and moulded queen posts above. The clerestorey windows have chamfered splays. The north aisle consists of four bays with moulded bases and capitals, bosses to later octagonal columns, and two-centred arches. The former blocked south arcade is similar but lacks bosses to the capitals and now serves as the north wall. A 19th-century octagonal pulpit and 19th-century octagonal font are present. A two-centred tower arch of two orders, with the outer continuous and the inner to the arch only, leads to the nave. A two-centred arch leads to the stair turret doorway. Two bells are hung in the tower, probably from the early 14th century by John of Hadham, one inscribed "Jam Tempus Est."