St Nicholas'S Church

TL 85 NE; 5/85

STANNINGFIELD, CHURCH ROAD

St. Nicholas's Church

(Formerly listed as Church of St. Nicholas)

14.07.55

I

Church; mediaeval, restored 1881. Nave, chancel, west tower and south porch. Flint rubble with limestone dressings. Plaintiled roofs with parapet gables; the tower roof slated. The nave has C12 core: coursed flint walling with slit- windows on north and south side; the north doorway (now blocked) with engaged shafts and weathered crude crocket capitals, semi-circular head with chevron moulding enriched with flowers on the soffit. The chancel rebuilt c.1300; 2- light windows in north and south walls and 3-light east window with smoke vent above, all having very original geometric tracery; blocked south doorway; a low squint in the south wall, of quatrefoil form within a square; simple arched piscina. The south nave doorway rebuilt early C14; Two chamfered orders with flower ornament, hoodmould with ball-flowers and one surviving head-corbel; in the wall inside the doorway a cusped holy water stoup. Two mid C14 Y-traceried windows in the nave, one combined with a simple piscina. The chancel arch rebuilt late C14, with pilasters having moulded capital and base; contemporary wooden screen having central ogee-arched opening and four lights on each side, with trefoiled heads on one side and quatrefoiled on the other. C15 tower with stone-roofed stair-turrent on the south side; large transomed 3-light west window with angel-corbels having shields; the bell-chamber stage demolished c.1880 and slated pyramid roof constructed. C15 font, octagonal, limestone with tracery on the stem; on the bowl the arms of Rokewood, alternating with panels of tracery. A fine but decayed C15 Doom, painted in black line with some red background, filling the wall above the chancel arch. During the restoration of 1881, nave and chancel 7-canted roofs clad with matchboarding and probably rebuilt. The south porch also rebuilt c.1880, in timber with cusped bargeboards; the arched door drums are reused from the previous early C14 porch. In the chancel, the limestone dresser-tomb of Thomas Rookwood, d.1522; a frieze of fleurons with panels containing quatrefoils and the arms of Rookwood; elliptical arched canopy and flanking pilasters with angel finials. Two black marble floor-slabs: to Thomas Rookwood, d.1726; to John and Elizabeth Gage, d. 1728 and 1759.

Listing NGR: TL8773156346