Church of St Nicholas is a Grade I listed building in the Breckland local planning authority area, England. First listed on 30 May 1960. A Late Medieval Church.
Church of St Nicholas
- WRENN ID
- heavy-copper-dale
- Grade
- I
- Local Planning Authority
- Breckland
- Constituency
- Mid Norfolk MP: George Freeman (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 30 May 1960
- Type
- Church
- Period
- Late Medieval
- Address
- Church of St Nicholas, Cranworth
- OS grid reference
- TF 988 034
- Coordinates
- 52.59271, 0.93418
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St. Nicholas is a parish church dating to the medieval period with subsequent alterations. It is constructed of flint with ashlar and brick dressings, and has lead roofs. The church includes a ruined western tower; a nave with a south aisle and south porch; and a chancel. Parts of the north and south walls of the west tower remain, including a fragment of the western ashlar jamb of the south first-floor opening. The south aisle features a 14th-century traceried circular window. Three traceried three-light Perpendicular windows are set within 4-centred arches, each with carved head label stops. A similar blocked window is located in the east of the south aisle, and a single similar window is on the north side. The nave has 14th-century moulded doorways with carved head label stops, though the north doorway is blocked. A restored late-medieval porch has 2-light side windows and a 4-centred entrance arch. The south door is late-medieval with moulded cover strips. The chancel is lit by two Perpendicular three-light traceried windows. A priest's door is positioned on the north side, potentially leading to or from a former vestry. The east window is a 14th-century design with a central cusped mandorla creating a pair of subsidiary lozenge-shaped cusped lights.
Inside, the church has a three-bay 14th-century arcade with quatrefoil piers and wave-moulded arches. The contemporary chancel arch is supported on carved head corbels. The easternmost bay of the south aisle connects to the chancel via an arch over a table tomb, with squints to either side. The nave and aisle both have restored late-medieval roofs; the nave roof has hammerbeams, while the aisle roof has braces with traceried spandrels. The chancel contains double piscinae with cusped ogee heads and foiled spandrels, and triple sedilia under a single 4-centred arch. A Southwell monument is located on the north side of the chancel, consisting of a three-bay colonnade of channelled Renaissance columns and a full entablature above a tomb chest displaying a life-size alabaster effigy of Sir Richard Southwell (died 1564). An arched recess above displays family arms. A Jacobean polygonal pulpit stands on a single stem with a carved lunette frieze and back-plate. A late-medieval table-tomb is present, decorated with cusped lozenges and blank shields. A holy water stoup is situated beside the doorway.
Local climate
Church of St Nicholas sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 730 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 79% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 95% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 32 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 59% of listed buildings. Of these, 17 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
Sign in or create a free account to unlock:
- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
Similar buildings
The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.
this building 1 similar nearby listed buildings