Church Of St Nicholas

Church of St Nicholas, Tackley

A cruciform church of 11th-century origins with a central tower, extensively developed through the medieval period and restored in the 19th century.

The church began as an 11th-century building. A 13th-century phase added the tower, south aisle, and various alterations. The 15th century saw the addition of transepts and a clerestory, along with further modifications. The north transept was largely rebuilt in 1616. G. E. Street undertook a major restoration in 1864 and added the porch.

The exterior is built of limestone rubble, with the chancel of coursed rubble and the nave, aisle west wall, and porch of regular coursed stone. Shallow-pitched lead roofs with ashlar parapets and gable parapets feature moulded cornices and copings; the porch has a stone-slate roof.

The plan comprises a 2-bay chancel and 3-bay nave with a south aisle. The chancel appears exceptionally tall due to the sloping site. Large clasping buttresses on the chancel and a wide shallow south buttress feature irregular quoins.

The chancel's east end displays three stepped lancet windows with a moulded sill course, dating to the 13th century. Above the central lancet is a stone panel with a shield enclosed in a stepped moulded frame, inscribed in Latin with the name John Standard and dated 1625. The south windows are 15th-century Perpendicular, with deep hollow-chamfered jambs, moulded tracery, and hood moulds. The eastern window has cusped Y-tracery on two lights; the large western window features panel tracery on three lights.

The north transept has a splay plinth and diagonal buttresses of two offsets, with a blocked doorway in its north-east corner. A three-light Perpendicular north window lights this space. The south transept has a hollow-chamfered plinth and south-east and south-west buttresses of two offsets, with a four-light Perpendicular south window.

The nave contains two blocked simple 11th-century round arches of irregular voussoirs. The eastern arch is now occupied by a short, wide two-light window of 1864 with heavy bar tracery. The western arch frames an 11th- or 12th-century small, simple, chamfered Romanesque doorway with imposts and a 19th-century plank door with decorative ironwork. The clerestory consists of two widely-spaced restored straight-headed windows with two trefoiled lights and hood moulds.

The nave and aisle west wall are of single build. The nave's tall 14th-century three-light window features cusped intersecting tracery and a hood mould with head stops. The porch is entered through an Early English style doorway with two chamfered orders and nook-shafts; inside, a 15th-century Perpendicular doorway has a wide hollow-chamfered segmental arch with blind tracery in the spandrels, a hood mould, and 19th-century double-leaf doors. A low lean-to stands against the porch's east wall. The aisle retains a small octagonal chimney above. Two-light straight-headed windows of 19th-century date with bar tracery flank the porch to east and west. The aisle clerestory has four two-light windows.

The tower rises in two stages, with north and south buttresses of two offsets largely embedded in the transept walls. Moulded string courses articulate the composition. The bell chamber features two openings on each side, each comprising a trefoiled round arch with louvres in chamfered straight-headed surrounds. A moulded cornice and embattled parapet with gargoyles at the corners complete the tower.

Interior surfaces are plastered. The chancel's east windows feature triple arches of two chamfered arches with clustered shafts. A 15th-century piscina on an octagonal shaft stands at the foot of the south-east window's east jamb, with the south window's mouldings continuing down to form a sedile. The north wall displays three chamfered Tudor arches of varying widths, separated in two instances by a round shaft and bearing hood moulds; the easternmost forms a tomb recess. A 19th-century three-bay roof has chamfered segmental-arched braces, wall posts, and pierced plate tracery. The crossing is spanned by arches of three chamfered orders with broad splayed jambs and simple imposts. The transepts are roofed in 19th-century style. The nave contains blocked round arches in its north wall and smaller blocked arches below the clerestory to north and south. A 13th-century three-bay south arcade features arches of two chamfered orders with round piers, moulded bases set on large octagonal pedestals, and stiff-leaf capitals; the west respond is a more slender attached shaft. The 19th-century roof has chamfered tie beams and braces with wall posts on painted shield corbels.

Interior fittings include a small reredos, probably designed by Street, of inlaid coloured stones. Stalls, altar rails, and pews date to circa 1864. A 13th-century font has a compound shaft with nailhead ornament and a bowl with simple trefoiled blind arcading. A brass eagle lectern is dated 1905. An octagonal wood pulpit and rood screen date to the late 19th or early 20th century. 19th-century stained glass is present throughout.

Monuments of note include a 15th-century tomb chest in the chancel recess, featuring miniature buttresses and four arched panels with an incised cross on top, paired with a wall monument bearing shields of arms and an inscription to Peter Aileworth (died 1595) and his wife Anne (died 1611). A small wall monument near the north-east corner commemorates William Harborne (1658) within a moulded surround with scrolled pediment and cartouche of arms. The north transept's east wall holds a monument to John Harborne (died 1651) and his wife, depicted kneeling facing each other beneath coffered round arches, with an architrave of pilasters and obelisks, entablature with putti, and a predella showing their children. The south transept's east wall contains a fine large Neo-Classical monument to John Morton (died 1780), signed by John Bacon and dated 1794, featuring a figure of Justice in high relief within a low relief shaped panel with volutes, drops, and a draped urn above, set on a pedestal with inscription. The west wall bears a black marble panel listing members of the Whicker Morton family from 1682 to 1746 (entries 1–10 in a table). The south aisle holds a Neo-Classical relief monument to Sir John Whalley Smythe Gardiner (died 1797), signed by J. Bacon, London, 1799, depicting a mourner weeping over a draped sarcophagus.