Church Of St Nicholas

Church of St Nicholas

A parish church built in 1503 at the expense of Sir Henry Heydon, constructed of galletted whole and knapped flint with stone dressings and a lead roof. The building comprises a west tower, nave and chancel in one, north and south aisles, and north and south porches.

The embattled three-stage tower dates to the 14th century and features stepped angle buttresses. The Decorated west window has two wide lights with multicusped heads and a sexfoil. The second stage contains narrow slits to north and south and a cusped light to the west, while two-light bell openings are set above. A gargoyle projects from the west face, and the embattlements are of pebble flint. A polygonal stair turret to the south east has a brick polygonal roof, and a stone-dressed square opening sits at the base of the south face.

The north and south facades of the nave are alike, each with a clerestory of ten openings under pointed segmental heads, each containing two cusped lights and a quatrefoil. An eleventh opening to the east over the chancel holds three similar lights. Four pairs of tall narrow two-light windows punctuate the walls. All windows and the porch arch feature voussoirs of alternating pale knapped flint and stone. The chancel extends one bay beyond the aisles and has a Y-tracery window.

The south porch has round shafts with continuous wave moulding to the arch and no return openings. It possesses a shallow pitched roof with moulded principal beams and side benches of Purbeck marble. The Perpendicular south doorway has plain chamfered jambs and treble mouldings to the arch, with Heydon arms in the spandrels and a niche above, partly covered by the porch roof. The north porch is similar but smaller, with benches fitted with ties, plain jambs, and a moulded arch to the doorway. A small flat-roofed room in the angle of the north aisle and chancel contains two oblong slit openings to the east and a 19th-century two-light opening to the north.

The large east window stands under a four-centred arch and contains four transomed lights, the upper lights with panel tracery and the lower lights with four-centred heads. A low buttress stands below the east window.

The interior features a five-bay arcade on the north and south sides with slender quatrefoil piers and double hollow-chamfered arches bearing shields at the apices, some displaying the Heydon arms. There is no chancel arch. The tall tower arch has double chamfers above figure corbels. Window rear arches are dropped to form wall benches. Much of the floor retains original 12-inch marble tiles, 10-inch brick tiles, and a few encaustic tiles.

The nave has a double-framed roof with moulded principal beams (the chancel roof has been renewed), featuring a fretwork frieze of shields and quatrefoils. Wall posts for principal rafters are supported by embattled stone corbels with blank shields. The aisle roofs are arch-braced.

An octagonal font stands on high octagonal steps, with evangelists' and passion symbols on its faces and a square stem bearing grinning lions at the angles. Some early 16th-century poppy head bench ends have been incorporated into 19th-century benches and choir stalls.

The screen includes remains of a painted screen with traceried panels painted with saints and prophets, now defaced. Four double panels on either side of the nave to the west are dated 1513, with two double panels in the south aisle chapel. Fragments of screen tracery lie under the tower, and parts of the screen have been randomly incorporated into the choir stalls. The choir stalls and rear of the screen panels bear superimposed graffiti of ships dating from the 16th century to late 19th-century brigantines.

In the chancel, a ledge below the east window incorporates a piscina. A priest's door to the south is blocked. Part of a black letter text dated 1638 (Malachi III 12) appears on the north wall. A small stone mensa of 16th-century date has been incorporated into a 20th-century altar. The south chapel contains a 17th-century table, its top renewed, with a strapwork frieze and a piscina with spandrels bearing sculptured flowers. A polygonal base of a piscina, possibly from a ruined medieval chapel in the churchyard, has been inserted in the north pier by the chancel. A four-centred arch forms the doorway of the sacristy in the angle of the north aisle and chancel. An 18th-century walnut pulpit, now on a concrete base, is present.