St Nicholas'S Church

St. Nicholas's Church is a mediaeval church, largely restored in 1881. It is located in Stanningfield, with a nave, chancel, west tower, and south porch. The church is constructed of flint rubble with limestone dressings, featuring plaintiled roofs with parapet gables, and a slated roof to the tower.

The nave retains a 12th-century core, evidenced by the coursed flint walling and slit windows on the north and south sides. A blocked north doorway features engaged shafts with weathered, crude crocket capitals, a semi-circular head with chevron moulding enriched with flowers on its soffit. The chancel was rebuilt around 1300, incorporating a 2-light window in the north wall, a south wall window, and a 3-light east window with a smoke vent above, all displaying original geometric tracery. A blocked south doorway and a low squint formed of quatrefoils within a square are also present. A simple arched piscina is also evident.

The south nave doorway was reconstructed in the early 14th century, exhibiting two chamfered orders with flower ornament, a hoodmould with ball-flowers, and a surviving head-corbel. Inside the doorway is a cusped holy water stoup. Two mid-14th century windows with Y-tracery are found in the nave, one incorporating a simple piscina. The chancel arch was rebuilt in the late 14th century with pilasters boasting moulded capitals and bases. A contemporary wooden screen stands here, featuring a central ogee-arched opening and four lights on each side, with trefoiled heads on the one side and quatrefoiled heads on the other.

The 15th-century tower has a stone-roofed stair-turrent on the south side and a large, transomed 3-light west window with angel corbels, each bearing shields. The bell-chamber stage was demolished around 1880, replaced with a slated pyramid roof. A 15th-century octagonal limestone font features tracery on its stem and the arms of Rokewood alternating with panels of tracery on the bowl. A fine, decayed 15th-century Doom painting, executed in black line with some red background, adorns the wall above the chancel arch.

During the 1881 restoration, the nave and chancel were given 7-canted roofs clad with matchboarding, and were likely rebuilt at this time. The south porch was also rebuilt around 1880 in timber with cusped bargeboards, utilizing reused arched door drums from an earlier 14th-century porch. Within the chancel is a limestone dresser-tomb of Thomas Rookwood, who died in 1522. It features a frieze of fleurons, panels containing quatrefoils, the arms of Rookwood, an elliptical arched canopy, and flanking pilasters with angel finials. Two black marble floor-slabs are also present: one to Thomas Rookwood, d.1726, and the other to John and Elizabeth Gage, d.1728 and 1759.