Old Church Of St Nicholas

HEYTHROP SP32NE 5/80 Old Church of St. Nicholas 27/08/57

GV II*

Chancel of church, now cemetery chapel. C12 and C15, altered C19. Limestone rubble with ashlar dressings; Stonesfield-slate roof. 2-bay chancel. 4-centre-arched C15 east window has Perpendicular drop tracery. Square-headed windows of 2 and 3 lights facing south are also C15 and have cusped lights, deep casement mouldings and square-stopped labels; between them is a blocked round-headed lancet above which is a relief of the Agnus Dei, and the south-west buttress also has a re-set early relief of 2 figures holding crooks. North wall has a small blocked round-headed window below a small square blocking. West wall incorporates the C12 chancel arch, with a band of alternating cable mould, flanked by pairs of round-headed niches, each with roll-moulded arch and jamb shafts; set into the chancel arch is the C12 former south doorway, with an elaborate arch of 5 ornamented orders, the jambs including 2 pairs of detached shafts with waterleaf capitals. Interior: fine trefoil-headed C13 piscina has a moulded surround, a stone credence shelf and a carving of a bunch of grapes at the rear. Cinquefoil-headed recess and a blocked round-headed doorway to north. Butt-purlin roof is probably C17/C18 but has re-used rafters. Elaborate panelled chest tomb to south of sanctuary has a Purbeck-marble cover with brasses commemorating John Ashfield (d.1521) and his wife Elenor, and forms part of a larger monument with the window above, in which they are also shown with their children in stained glass. Monuments also include a large coloured-marble wall memorial to George Talbot, 15th Earl of Shrewsbury (d.1787) by J.F. Moore, with an oval relief below an achievment of arms; and a white marble monument commemorating Mary, the mother of the 15th Earl. The east window also includes medieval stained glass. Small stone font on a panelled stem may be C17. (Buildings of England: Oxforeshire: pp696-7; VCH: Oxfordshire: Vol XI, pp141-2)

Listing NGR: SP3522327713