Chapel of St Nicholas

Chapel of St Nicholas

The Chapel of St Nicholas was founded in 1146 as a chapel of ease to the Church of St Margaret. The present building was largely rebuilt around 1200, with a south-west tower added around 1220. The entire structure except the tower was rebuilt between around 1371 and 1419. The steeple was built in 1500 and rebuilt in 1869 by Sir George Gilbert Scott.

The tower is built of ashlar stone, whilst the aisles are of brick, rendered and scored to imitate ashlar. The clerestory is of rubble masonry with ashlar dressings. All roofs are covered in lead.

The chapel has a rectangular plan on an east-west axis, comprising a north and south aisle, vestries in the north-east and south-east corners, a two-storey porch at the west end of the south aisle, and a two-stage tower in the south-west corner.

The chapel measures approximately 62 metres in length and comprises a nave, continuous chancel and continuous aisles on an east-west axis, with a two-stage tower in the south-west corner. The nave roof is pitched, with lean-to roofs to the north and south aisles, all covered in lead. Solar panels were installed on the south slope of the nave roof around 2015. The main elevations are composed primarily of cut stone, with coursed rubble stone to the clerestory, red brick to the north aisle, the east five bays of the south aisle and the east wall, with some brick detailing at clerestory level.

The nave has 12 clerestory bays. The south clerestory is reduced to 11 bays because of the south-west tower, and the south aisle to 10 bays because of the south porch. Each bay contains a segmental-arched three-light Perpendicular window, linked by a continuous hood moulding. Each aisle bay has a sill course broken by a stepped buttress, and a continuous plinth course.

The north aisle has two late 14th-century doorways: one in the second bay with a pointed arch and carved figurative heads to the corbels of the hood moulding; the other in the seventh bay with a segmental hood moulding. The south aisle has one late 14th-century doorway in the fifth bay, heavily cusped and sub-cusped under hood moulds forming half an octagon.

At the west end of the south aisle, the two-storey south porch has a pitched roof, gabled to the south, and a decorative fluted parapet to each elevation. The south elevation of the porch has a pointed-arch opening below a screen of Perpendicular niches in two tiers, with intricately carved mouldings, niches, cusps and decorative emblems. The porch has a three-light window opening at ground floor level on the east and west elevations, and a two-light window opening at first floor level on the east and west elevations.

The east elevation has a central 11-light Perpendicular window illuminating the chancel, and a nine-light Perpendicular window illuminating each vestry. The west front has a large 11-light Perpendicular window with a doorway beneath, stepped into the window. The window is flanked on either side by a stepped buttress spanning the full height of the west front, which incorporate ogeed and panelled statuary niches at ground floor level, surmounted by heraldic beasts. The elaborately carved door surround comprises a pointed arch terminating in figurative head corbels, containing two cusped door openings separated by a Y-tracery trumeau (mirroring the arrangement of the window tracery above), and two early 15th-century doors (restored in 2012).

The north aisle is illuminated by a large segmental-headed window with a carved hood moulding and pointed-arch tracery.

The bell tower in the south-west corner was constructed in two stages and stands lower than the rest of the building. It is accessed via a pointed arch at the lowest level of the west elevation, and has two-light plate tracery windows to the south and west elevations of the first floor and belfry. The west, north and south elevations each have a giant arch of three recessed orders over a battered plinth, enclosing two-light windows at first-floor level, with nail-head carving to the arch soffits and a quatrefoil light above (the south and north being partially blocked). The bar tracery of the belfry suggests the tower was extended around 1275. The east wall of the west tower, visible from the roof of the south aisle, shows the trace of the roof of the original chapel built around 1200, before the church was enlarged in the late 14th to early 15th century. The octagonal-plan leaded spire was constructed in 1869 to the designs of Sir George Gilbert Scott, replacing an earlier spire which collapsed in a storm in 1741.

The interior of the large chapel measures approximately 59 metres in length, 22 metres in width, and 28 metres in height to the ridge of the nave. The chapel is 11 bays long without any structural division, having an 11-bay arcade with moulded arches on lozenge piers. The roof has 12 bays of elaborately carved alternating hammer-beam and tie-beam trusses, the ties having queen posts and arched braces dropping to wall posts on stone corbels. The hammers have carved angels, three of which were wholly re-carved in the 19th century, the others wholly or largely original. Only in the sanctuary bay are the roof and angels painted, with some original paint surviving. Each wall post has an ogeed canopied niche to the right and left of the corbel. The roof has one moulded butt purlin and ridge piece.

The nave and aisles contain 19th-century enclosed pews installed during the 1852 restoration. A few original bench ends survive at the east end of the south aisle, with carved 'poppy head' ends. On the north and south walls, the interior of the door openings are elaborately carved, with cusped and sub-cusped ornament to the north door surrounds.

At the east end of the chapel, the altar stands on a three-stepped tiled dais, flanked by a vestry on either side (the south vestry was converted into an office space around 2015). The altar has a reredos of 1852 designed by John Brown of Norwich, and painted panels depicting Our Lord, flanked by the Virgin Mary and St John, and by St Nicholas and Bishop William Turbus, were inserted into the niches in 1904. The north wall of the chancel features an elaborately carved door surround to the north vestry with cusped and sub-cusped ornament, with a demi-figure of an angel in an oblong niche to the right. The south wall of the chancel features the remains of badly mutilated sedilia, retaining a single corbel in the shape of a human head and a line of demi-angels above. The sanctuary arrangement was altered in 1981 by Donald Insall Partnership, and a large paved dais was installed in the chancel at this time. The Willis organ to the north side of the dais was installed in 1900.

No medieval glass remains in the chapel: what little survived the Reformation and Commonwealth was removed in 1805. There are now just four stained glass windows: the large east window (1860 by H Hughes of Ward and Hughes) depicts 32 scenes from the New Testament with Christ's Crucifixion and Ascension at its centre; the south sanctuary window depicts the parable of the Talents in eight scenes (1854); a window in the south aisle depicts Christ, Mary Magdalene and angels (1895); and behind the organ, a small panel depicts St Anne teaching the Virgin Mary to read (1935).

The south porch contains a lierne star vault to the interior with figured bosses and head corbels at the springers. The double-leaf door to the interior was crafted in the 15th century and heavily restored in the 19th century. A stair turret accessed from a door in the north-west corner provides access to a first floor room in the porch.

The west tower has three lancets to the east wall of the tower, representing the west wall of the 13th-century church before the tower was built. A kitchenette and universal access toilet were introduced in the ground floor of the tower, and toilets installed in the lower ground floor of the tower (accessed from the west elevation) in 2015. The bells within the west tower most likely originated in the mid 16th century and were recast in the early 17th century. The ring was increased from five to eight bells in 1766, providing a full octave, and the eight bells were recast by John Taylor and Co of Loughborough in 1869. New headstocks and mechanical fittings were installed during the 2015 restoration.

Throughout the chapel, 187 ledger slabs decorate the floor, dated between 1623 and 1834, many with shields of arms, said to be the second largest quantity in England after Bath Abbey.

At the west end of the church, the large octagonal font was granted to the chapel in 1627 by Bishop Harsnett of Norwich, and stands on a three-stepped octagonal platform. The octagonal water stoup at the west end of the north aisle was carved around 1420 and, although now free-standing, was originally intended to stand in a corner close to a main entrance to the building. The use of such stoups was later banned by the Church of England in 1549, and this stoup survived locally as a garden ornament.

The consistory court was constructed in the north-west corner in 1617, utilising some 15th-century oak benches and a former communion table, bounded by a 17th-century balustrade. A carved wooden table tomb at the west end bears an inscribed slate plaque commemorating the sacrifice of local men who fell during the First World War (1914-1918).

An ornate 15th-century brass lectern stands at the north end of the nave, decorated with an eagle perched on a round finial, and is reportedly one of only 45 surviving lecterns from before the Reformation. Other examples of this same type can be seen at Peterborough Cathedral and St Mark's, Venice. An ornate wooden sword rest, dated 1743 and 1760, hangs on a column at the east end of the south aisle of the nave.

On the east wall of the north aisle a monument hangs to Thomas Snelling (1623), with kneeling figures of Thomas and his wife in an architectural surround, with their children depicted in the plinth below. A monument to Matthew Clarck (1623) hangs on the east wall of the south aisle, having kneeling figures in side profile within an architectural surround, with Clarck's first wife lying recumbent in the plinth under the scene. At the east end of the south wall, a memorial to Thomas Greene (1675) features large kneeling figures of Sir Thomas and his wife flanked by two Corinthian columns supporting a segmental pediment, with their five daughters and four sons depicted in the plinth underneath. A marble monument stands at the east end of the north aisle, designed by Robert Adam (1757) and dedicated to Sir Benjamin Keene. It takes the form of a tureen-like urn on a square plinth decorated with festoons and inscriptions, the finely carved urn depicting a Lisbon shipping scene.