Church Of St Nicholas

832/7/167

DENSTON TOP GREEN Church of St Nicholas 19-DEC-61

GV I

A random flint church with stone dressings and solid stone buttresses. Built on the site of a C12 church. The West tower is late C14 and the remainder is late C15. In 1475 Sir John Howard and Sir John Broughton obtained letters patent from King Edward IV to found a perpetual chantry. The west tower has diagonal buttresses and a castellated parapet. The nave and chancel, which continue without a break, and the aisles have castellated parapets and panel traceried windows. An octagonal staircase tower on the north side led to the rood loft and aisle roof. The south porch has a fan vault, an external canopied niche above the arch and a castellated holy water stoop in the angle of the south-east buttress. The C15 south door has traceried ornamentation in the upper panels. The interior has been little altered since the C17 and presents an unusually complete picture of a medieval church with stalls for chantry priests and benches for parishioners. The 7-bay chancel and nave has a fine original arch braced cambered tie-beam roof and a cornice carved with lions, hounds, hares and harts. There are C17 shields hearing the arms of the Robinson family superimposed on larger shields of earlier date. The moulded and embattled roof beam and the lower part of the traceried roof screen remains. There are fine choir stalls with traceried fronts and parclose screens dividing them from the chancel aisles. Backing on to the roof screen there are 4 misericords 3 are carved with foliage and 1 is carved with a crane holding a stone. The altar, communion rail and octagonal pulpit are of the C17. The bench ends have carved animals copied from the medieval bestiary, and they also have a skirting, originally used to keep in place the rushes provided for kneeling upon. Brasses include a fine brass of Henry and Margaret Everard (1524), a brass of a lady of the Drury family (1530) and a brass inscription to William Burn (1591[. North of the chancel there is an altar tomb with 2 shrouded cadavers of unknown name. The C15 octagonal font is carved with representations of the 7 sacraments and the crucifixion.

Listing NGR: TL7602052950