Church Of St Nicholas

Church of St Nicholas

A church of circa 1300 with 15th-century work, refitted in 1849 by W. R. Moffatt, and with the tower partly rebuilt in 1886 by E. F. Bisshopp. The building is constructed of flint and stone with red brick and stone dressings, with plaintile roofs to the main structure and leaded roofs to the aisles. It comprises a west tower, continuous nave and chancel, north and south aisles, a south porch, and a north vestry.

The tower dates to the 15th century and has four stages. The belfry stage and embattled parapet were rebuilt in 1886 by E. F. Bisshopp. The tower features stepped diagonal buttresses with flushwork panels and a stair turret in the south-east angle. The west doorway has multiple continuous orders, one order decorated with fleurons and shields, with shield and figure designs in the spandrels. The hood moulding terminates in crowned and winged lion stops. Above the doorway are flushwork cusped panels bearing shields alternately. The tall west window has three-light panel tracery and was probably restored in 1886, with a stone cill band and a band at stage level that continues across the north and south faces. Single ringing-chamber lights sit beneath hood moulds. The belfry windows have two cusped lights beneath a vesica and are separated by a shaft surmounted by a cross, with continuous bands at cill level and at the springing of the window arch. The flushwork parapet rises in two stages, with pairs of quatrefoils to each side of paired blank arches, and above are flushwork panels with figures to the centre of each face. Crocketed finials crown the composition. Much of the tower was refaced by E. F. Bisshopp.

The nave has four bays. The south elevation has two Y-tracery windows and one three-light intersecting-tracery window (restored in the 19th century), along with one three-light 19th-century Perpendicular window. Diagonal buttresses occur at the angles, with straight buttresses between the windows. A 19th-century brick porch with alternated shaped gable and a rendered band beneath the coping projects from this elevation. The outer doorway of the porch has multiple orders including a rounded shaft supporting an ovolo-moulded arch, and is furnished with a pair of late 19th-century part-glazed doors. A sundial decorates the gable of the porch. The inner arch has two orders of broad roll mouldings with a scroll-moulded hood and figure stop. A full dormer clerestory window, probably of the 15th century but with 19th-century restoration, lights the rood. The north elevation is similar but lacks a porch; the north doorway is partly submerged beneath ground level.

The chancel has diagonal buttresses. On the south side is a three-light 19th-century Perpendicular window, a 19th-century porch and doorway, and a 19th-century east window of three-light panel tracery with supermullions and an embattled transom. A 19th-century vestry to the north has a simple four-light window beneath a hood mould and a shallow gable to the north.

The interior features four-bay north and south arcades with quatrefoil arrised piers and square fillets to the diagonals. The cap mouldings are deeply undercut, and the arch mouldings consist of two orders separated by a deep hollow. A chapel at the east end of the north aisle was added in 1849 by W. R. Moffat of London; the arch to this chapel and to the eastern south aisle chapel were probably brought from the chancel. The western responds of the arcades were rebuilt, probably in the 1880s. The tower arch has a single chamfered respond and a multiple-moulded arch, with a four-centred arched tower stair doorway. A tall cusped niche on the north wall is possibly reset. A shorter cusped niche or piscina stands on the east wall of the north aisle.

The nave has a collar-rafted roof, probably of the 14th century, restored in 1849, with a moulded cornice and wallplate. The chancel roof is 19th-century; the aisle roofs are covered over. The pews date to the 19th century, probably 1848 by Henry Ringham, and incorporate Jacobean-style panelling possibly reused from an earlier period. A fine Jacobean pulpit with tester is present. The altar rail is of early 18th-century date, with moulded rails and balusters twisted in a vase pattern, the newels heavier and almost bulbous. The octagonal font has each face decorated with a pair of blind cusped sunk panels and flying angels to the soffit of the bowl; the stem is probably 19th-century, octagonal, with an angel or prophet at each angle, and rests on an original octagonal base.

The east window dates to 1904 and is by William Morris Pepper. A south chapel window of circa 1875 is by O'Connor and Taylor. Two windows in the north and south aisles of circa 1910–12 are by T. F. Curtis, and a north chapel window is by King of Ipswich.

A carved tympanum and relief of circa 1120, re-sited within the church, are of particular significance. The tympanum is carved on both faces, with an inscription and a boar depicted on the main face, and an interlaced cross on the reverse. The carved relief, probably from the former Church of St. Michael, depicts St. Michael fighting the dragon.

The church contains bells including one of 1630 by Miles Graye of Colchester and four of 1706 by Henry Pleasant of Sudbury.