Church Of St Nicholas

The Church of St Nicholas is an outstanding parish church with origins before the Norman Conquest, though the earliest visible fabric dates from the 12th century. This includes the southwest door, spiral shafts beside the chancel arch, and parts of the south transept arch. The chancel, north transept arch, and arcades are 13th-century work. In the 14th century, the central tower was rebuilt and moved one bay westward, transepts were constructed, and the nave with its arcades was lengthened by one bay to the west. During the late 15th century, the south aisle was refenestrated, the transepts enlarged, roofs rebuilt, and a clerestory added. A fine font dating to circa 1468 was installed. The south porch was added around 1500, and a detached bell tower (separately listed) was built between circa 1515 and 1525. In 1539 the central tower was reduced in height. The northeast chapel adjacent to the chancel was demolished in 1565. The church underwent restoration in the 19th century, and a northeast vestry was added in 1922.

The church is built of flint rubble with some knapped flint, stone dressings, and lead roofs. It has an unusual plan: aisled and cruciform, but with the transepts and nave extending one bay east of the crossing. The chancel is unaisled, and there is a northeast vestry, southwest porch, and crossing tower.

Exterior

The exterior appearance is largely Decorated and Perpendicular in style. The low crossing tower, reduced in height in 1539, appears more prominent due to the absence of parapets except on the southeast transeptal chapel and the steeply pitched roofs of the nave and chancel. The tower features pairs of 14th-century two-light windows with flowing ogee tracery.

The long chancel has 13th-century gabled buttresses with heads set in elliptical openings, a large 15th-century window with vertical tracery, and a 13th-century foiled roundel in the gable above. The south wall contains two 13th-century two-light windows with plate tracery quatrefoils and an Early English-style window with three stepped lights. Similar windows appear in the north wall. The 13th-century south door of the chancel has a door from 1862 with ironwork by Gidney's. The low northeast vestry of 1922 is built in a simple Perpendicular style. Above it is visible a steeply pitched roof scar in the east wall of the northeast transeptal chapel, evidence of the former St Edmund's Chapel (demolished 1565) which once occupied the position of the vestry. An area of herringbone brick and flint masonry in the chancel north wall probably represents the remains of an earlier chancel.

The south transept has a very tall 15th or early 16th-century west window with a square head, and a similar but shorter south window with an embattled transom. Above this is a 14th-century window with cusped, reticulated tracery in a square frame, with a similar high-level window in the east wall. The southeast transeptal chapel features a rich embattled parapet with carved quatrefoils and windows like those in the south transept—Perpendicular below, Decorated above. A high-level blocked opening in the southeast chapel east wall probably accommodated a 14th-century window.

The south aisle has large windows from circa 1464-6 with embattled transoms and vertical tracery. The clerestory has three-light windows with square heads. The very fine south porch of circa 1500 features a base frieze with quatrefoils, short buttresses with flint flushwork and carved grotesques, canopied statue niches, and a carved Annunciation in the spandrels of the outer opening. The south door is mid-12th century, reset, with two orders of shafts and a cusped, trefoil head similar to the Prior's door at Ely. The nave west window is early 14th-century with cusped Y-tracery. Below it, the 14th-century west door with continuous chamfers is flanked by two ogee-headed niches.

The north aisle has large 14th-century windows with flowing, Decorated tracery and a north door with a pointed head in a square frame. The north transept has a high-level 14th-century north window similar to those in the north aisle; below it is a large 15th-century window with vertical tracery and sub-transoms. A similar window appears in the north wall of the northeast transeptal chapel, which lacks an upper level.

Interior

The interior is large and lofty, with the crossing arches and chancel arch beyond forming a good vista down the nave. The interior is largely 13th and 14th-century, with some reworking in the later Middle Ages. The chapel ceilings are particularly notable.

The tall 14th-century chancel arch is flanked by 12th-century spiral shafts, probably a remnant of the former east crossing arch. Other irregularities in this area also point towards rebuilding. The lower part of the responds for the arch to the southeast transeptal chapel are 12th-century; the arch to the northeast chapel is early 13th-century and has keeled shafts on moulded corbels with twisted ends. Above this arch are two windows now opening internally: one a 13th-century quatrefoil, the other a two-light 14th-century window with a triangular head. Similar windows appear on the other side, probably remnants of a clerestory before the southeast and northeast chapels were heightened. The chancel windows have chamfered rear-arches, and there is a 13th-century string course that rises over the south priest's door and north vestry door. The sedilia, piscina and aumbry are good 13th-century work. In the west wall of the chancel to the north of the chancel arch is the door to the former rood loft, which was formerly accessed from the demolished St Edmund's Chapel on the site of the present northeast vestry. The high-level door to the south of the chancel arch provided access from the screen to the muniment room over the south transept.

The massive crossing arches are 14th-century and have polygonal responds for the inner orders and continuous outer orders. The lantern tower has a 14th-century gallery of pointed, chamfered arches with polygonal moulded capitals on quatrefoil shafts. Above this, the rear-arches of the tower windows are deeply recessed and have similar arcading in the front plane.

The nave arcades, both of five bays, are 13th-century, extended in the 14th century. The south arcade is early 13th-century and has round piers with moulded capitals except for the first pier from the west, which is polygonal and has 14th-century polygonal moulded capitals. The north arcade is mid-13th century and has quatrefoil piers with quatrefoil, moulded capitals, again except for the last pier from the west, which is like that on the south. As the responds on each side match the eastern part of the arcades, it is likely that the nave was extended by one bay to the west in the 14th century and the polygonal piers added then; the arcade arches on both sides, of two chamfered orders, were probably also rebuilt in the 14th century. The arches into the transepts from the aisles were rebuilt probably in the early 16th century and have an inner order on polygonal responds with embattled capitals with fleurons, an outer order of many continuous mouldings and a hood mould with angel stops towards the transept. The south window of the south transept has a large, four-centred rear-arch also with tiny mouldings.

Principal Fixtures

The most important fitting is the superb Seven Sacraments font, one of the very best in the country, documented to 1468. Octagonal in form, the sacrament scenes are set under vaulted niches, with further vaulted statue niches on the angles and on the base. There is an excellent brass eagle lectern of 1482.

In the chancel is a 13th-century trefoiled double piscina with dog-tooth ornament, detached shafts and a hood mould with head stops. Similar but plainer are the three-seat stepped sedilia with moulded arches. In the chancel north wall is a trefoiled aumbry with a lamp holder at the apex. A 15th-century piscina is located in the south transept.

Notable 15th-century ceilings in the transeptal chapels feature flat cusped panels and painted decoration. That on the south may be circa 1430, probably associated with the raising of the chapel by William Boton to create a muniment room on the upper floor. It has emblems of the Lamb and Flag lying on the Book of Life. That on the north belongs to the chapel of Thomas Becket and is late 15th-century, with alternating eagles and crowns in wreaths. The south aisle roof is late medieval and has plain, open, arched braces; the north aisle roof is more heavily moulded and has flowing tracery in the spandrels. The south transept has a hammerbeam roof with heraldry and fleuron bosses. The nave has a 19th-century boarded barrel ceiling with cusped panels defined by ribs, and there is a much renewed or entirely 19th-century cusped, boarded ceiling in the north transept. The chancel has a very plain crownpost roof with an embattled wall plate.

A screen of 1480 with painted figures of saints including St Withburga at the entrance to the south transept was brought from Oxburgh church in 1949. There is a fine early 16th-century Flemish chest with Mannerist figures, given to the church in 1786 by William Rush and said to have come from the ruins of Buckingham Castle. An organ of 1785 by Bernard Smith has been much rebuilt in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The 19th-century nave benches were remodelled in the 20th century, with poppy heads only on the outer ends. A Gothic-style reredos of 1857 was painted with figures of saints in 1929. An interesting rood screen of 1921 (a war memorial) is in a free Arts and Crafts Gothic style, with a carved rood group and demi-figures of angels.

The church contains some good 19th and early 20th-century glass, including the chancel northeast and southeast windows by Wailes of 1857, the south transept of 1847 by Heaton, Butler and Bayne, and also by them the east window of 1904 and the north transept window of 1905. The Cowper memorial window of 1900 in the northeast chapel is also very fine.

There is an impressive collection of monuments, the most notable of which is to the poet William Cowper, died 1800, by Flaxman in the north transept, showing a palm branch draped across a bible, and above it a memorial window of 1900. A small brass demi-figure commemorates Edmund Kelyng, died 1479, and another Etheldreda Castell, died 1486. There are also many other 18th and 19th-century wall tablets and numerous ledger slabs.

History

A church was founded at Dereham in 654 by St Withburga, daughter of Anna, King of the East Angles. The place where she was first buried became a spring, known as St Withburga's well, after her body was removed to the church. The church and associated nunnery were destroyed by the Danes circa 870. In the early 10th century, Dereham was given to the refounded abbey at Ely and the church was rebuilt. The earliest visible fabric in the present church is 12th-century, and it is unclear if it was newly rebuilt at that date or constructed around an older church. Either way, it is almost certain that the church was cruciform, with a crossing tower one bay east of the present tower.

The church was greatly rebuilt in the 13th century, when the nave arcades were added, and again in the 14th century. Probably at this time, likely due to concerns about the stability of the tower or even because of its collapse, the crossing tower was demolished and rebuilt one bay west. Also at this time, new transepts were built, and the nave lengthened. The church was extensively refurbished and refurnished in the later 15th century. The work on the south aisle windows is documented to 1464-6.

The font was provided in 1468 for £12 16s 9d, and probably provides a terminal date for structural work on the nave. The lectern dates to 1482. The south porch was added circa 1500 and paid for by Roger and Margaret Boton. The detached bell tower was built circa 1515-25. The central tower was reduced in height in 1539. The northeast chapel and St Edmund's Chapel to its east were demolished in 1565. By the late 18th century the roofs were largely ceiled in, and the church had substantial galleries, including two tiers of galleries in the aisles.

Restoration in 1857 (architect unidentified) included replacing two Perpendicular windows in the chancel with three-light Early English-style windows. There were extensive restorations in 1876 and 1885-6. The galleries were removed during the 19th century and the seating installed, although this was modified in the 20th century. The rood screen was installed in 1921 as a memorial for World War I. The northeast vestry was built on the site of St Edmund's Chapel in 1922. The Oxburgh screen of circa 1480 at the entrance to the south transept Lady chapel was brought from Oxburgh church in 1949, following the collapse of the spire there and the subsequent demolition of the nave.