Church Of St Nicholas

Church of St Nicholas

This parish church dates from the late 12th century with significant additions from the 13th and 15th centuries. The building was substantially restored and its chancel rebuilt in 1870 by Charles Buckeridge. It is constructed from coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings, and roofed in sheet metal and Stonesfield slate.

The church comprises a chancel, nave, south vestry, north transept, north and south aisles, a south porch and a west tower.

The 19th-century chancel is steeply roofed in Decorated style, with a 3-light east window featuring reticulated tracery and two 2-light windows to the north, all with carved head stops. The vestry to the south contains a re-used 3-light east window with Perpendicular tracery and a square-headed window on the south side.

The south aisle features two double lancets with trefoil heads and deeply-cut moulding; the westernmost is likely 19th century, while to the left of the porch is a plain 13th-century double lancet. The 15th-century porch has a moulded outer arch and shelters the restored late-12th-century south doorway, which displays a round arch of 3 chamfered orders on jambs of a detached shaft flanked by attached shafts, all with moulded capitals. Both aisles have small lancets at the west end.

The north aisle contains 2 tall square-headed 2-light windows with Perpendicular tracery within casement mouldings, flanking a contemporary doorway with recessed ornamented spandrels under a label mould. The tall late-14th-century transept has a 4-light early-Perpendicular window to the east and a 3-light window to the north, both with transoms in the tracery. A 15th-century clerestory features square-headed traceried windows of 2 and 3 lights with large carved head stops. Deep 15th-century parapets to the nave, aisles and transept display carved heads and gargoyles, including a fine "green man".

The unbuttressed tower's lower two stages may date from the late 12th or early 13th century, though they could be earlier; the second stage has a round-headed lancet, while the 2-light west window is 14th century. The 15th-century top stage has 2-light traceried bell-chamber openings and carries a crenellated parapet with crocketed corner pinnacles and gargoyles.

Interior

The 19th-century chancel contains a double sedilia and piscina to the south with cinquefoiled arches. The chancel arch and the low arch leading to the transept are 15th century, though the remains of a Romanesque window survive above the latter. The arch incorporates 13th-century shafts with moulded bases and capitals. The 4-bay south arcade and remaining 3 bays of the north arcade are 13th century, featuring circular columns, moulded capitals and arches of 2 chamfered orders. Both arcades flank the tower, which has a plain arch of 2 continuous orders. Both aisles contain 15th-century piscinae.

The 15th-century style nave roof features traceried kingpost trusses rising from carved corbels. Other roofs are plainer and date from the 19th century. Most fittings are 19th century, except for a 17th-century communion table with baluster legs and a chest with arcaded front. The chancel contains 19th-century stained glass, while early-20th-century glass appears in the transept.

Monuments include a tablet flanked by scrolls and cherub bearing an armorial cartouche between flaming urns, commemorating Joseph Rollinson (died 1699), and a marble wall monument by Ricketts of Gloucester to Sir William and Lady Catherine Osbaldeston (died 1740 and 1737) featuring an urn and serpent against a black obelisk.