Church Of St Nicholas

The Church of St Nicholas is a church dating back to the 13th century, with significant alterations in the 15th and 16th centuries. It is constructed of limestone rubble and ashlar, with stone-slate and lead roofs. The church includes a nave with aisles, a chancel, a west tower, and a south porch.

The chancel, dating to the 15th century, features a moulded plinth and side windows with two cinquefoil lights, labelled with carved square stops. A Tudor-arched priest's door has carved foliage in the spandrels, and the east window has three lights with Perpendicular tracery. The south aisle was rebuilt in 1562 and has a steep-pitched roof, a moulded string under the eaves, a reset 15th-century window in the ashlar south wall, and two uncusped two-light windows. The north aisle, with a stone-slated roof, has two-light windows, and to the east, a window with three graduated cinquefoil lights. The clerestory is punctuated by two-light windows. The 15th-century tower has two-light belfry openings and corner gargoyles below a crenellated parapet; the west window has three lights with Perpendicular tracery.

Inside, the church has a 13th-century chancel arch and nave arcades, four bays to the north and three to the south. The chancel has an elaborate 19th-century arch-braced collar-truss roof. The 15th-century nave roof has cambered tie beams and moulded purlins, while the north aisle roof is of similar design. The five-bay south aisle has a roof with queen-post trusses, moulded tie beams, and curved windbraces. The porch features a four-centre arched entrance with wrought-iron gates, sheltering a reset Decorated doorway. The chancel floor is paved with medieval encaustic tiles. The church contains numerous 15th and 16th-century bench pews in the nave, and return stalls in the chancel with medieval poppy-head bench ends. Other furnishings include a 17th-century communion table and turned rails, a 17th-century hexagonal pulpit with arched panels and a tester, and a 17th-century screen in the tower arch with pierced flat balusters. Stained glass includes fragments from the 15th century in the heads of windows and some old geometrical glazing in one chancel light, alongside 15th-century panels inserted into the east window. Traces of medieval wall painting survive over the chancel arch. A significant monument is a large alabaster wall monument to Richard Croke (died 1683), with an elaborate frame and double pediment.