Church Of St Nicholas

Church of St Nicholas

A parish church of the 14th and 15th centuries, built in carstone with stone dressings. The church comprises a west tower, nave and aisles with clerestory, south porch, and chancel. The leaded aisle roofs and slated nave and chancel are later additions or replacements.

The building represents two major phases of construction. The chancel and nave arcade date from the early 14th century in the Decorated style. The nave clerestory, aisles, and west tower are early Perpendicular, dating to around 1370.

The west tower rises in three stages and is rectangular on plan. It has a moulded stone plinth and is decorated with a 5-light Perpendicular west window. The north and south sides feature single lancets, while the east face carries four 3-light belfry windows in the Perpendicular style. The tower is buttressed to the north-west and south-west with stone-dressed and quoined buttresses featuring four set-offs each. The north and south faces of the east side also carry dressed stone buttresses. The tower is crowned with a battlemented parapet with spout heads on each face and four 19th-century standing angels at the corners. A buttressed rectangular stair tower projects at the north-east corner.

The nave extends for six bays with aisles. The south aisle contains four Perpendicular 3-light windows and 3-light east and west windows. A mid to late 19th-century porch with angle buttresses and two set-offs protects the south entrance. Six 3-light Perpendicular clerestory windows light the nave above. A sanctus bell-cote and niche are positioned over the nave's east gable.

The north aisle spans six bays and features a corner set-off buttress at the north-west, with five square set buttresses along the north face. A 3-light Perpendicular west window lights the north-west bay. The north-west bay itself is blank, while the adjacent bay contains a reset Decorated north doorway. Three 3-light Perpendicular north windows follow, and a late 19th-century additional bay at the north-east incorporates a reused tracery window serving as a vestry.

The chancel is a fine example of Decorated architecture, comprising three bays. The south side features three 2-light Decorated windows, two with Reticulated tracery and one with simpler "Y" tracery incorporating trefoils and quatrefoils. A priest's door is positioned on the south side. At the junction with the nave stands a rectangular traceried panel with four quatrefoils, possibly designed for external access to the sanctus bell above. The east window is a particularly fine 5-light composition with Reticulated Decorated tracery. All chancel windows are provided with external hood moulds and head-stops.

Interior

The six-bay nave is lined with octagonal piers of the Decorated period, each fluted with eight concave flutes topped with traceried heads. The piers rest on octagonal bases and capitals and are enriched with hood moulds and corbel head-stops. The clerestory above is Perpendicular. The nave is covered by a 19th-century arched braced hammerbeam roof, likely part of the major restoration of 1877 to 1879 which cost £6000. A Decorated tower arch separates the nave from the tower space.

A 14th-century octagonal stone font features paired blank traceried arches. Its wooden cover, heavily restored in 1914, incorporates 17th-century pattern turned balusters supporting a medieval stage adorned with crocketed spirelets. Re-used bench ends survive within the nave.

The chancel arch is a fine Decorated composition with head-stops. All chancel windows feature internal arches and head-stops. The chancel contains a particularly notable Decorated piscina and sedilia grouped beneath a single common straight hood mould with stops. Detached shafts with bases and capitals decorated with foliage support four cinquefoil arches with trefoils in the spandrels, all executed with deeply-cut detail.

A seven-light Perpendicular rood screen of the late 14th century survives with figures on the north side only, depicting Saint Agatha, Saint Denys, Saint Agnes, Saint Hubert, Saint Martha, and a coped and mitred bishop, possibly Simon of Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury (died 1381).

Monuments include an early 17th-century classical table tomb monument of the Peel family on the north side of the chancel, and good 18th-century wall monuments on the south side.

The south aisle at its east end contains a deep squint offering views into the chancel. On the south side stands a notable 14th-century Decorated piscina with an ogee frame and cinquefoil head, accompanied by a surviving credence shelf.