Church Of St Nicholas

Church of St Nicholas

Church. The building dates from the 11th century with the tower, which was altered in the 12th century in the Romanesque style, particularly in the chancel. The nave was enlarged around 1180, with further small alterations made in the 14th, 15th and 19th centuries. The church was restored by Henry Woodyer.

The exterior is constructed of mortar-rendered Bargate rubblestone with ashlar dressings. It has a plain tiled roof with a wood-shingled broach spire. The plan comprises a nave with pentice roof aisles, double chancel to the east, and a square tower to the west with a porch to the south.

The unbuttressed tower has lancet openings in each face of the bellchamber. The chancel walls contain blocked windows with simple hollow mouldings, one to the north and one to the south. The aisles have 13th-century lancet windows alternating with foiled-head windows and two-light aisle windows. A Decorated window marks the east end of the south aisle. The 19th-century work includes a triangular tile-hung hipped roof with dormers on the south side of the nave roof, one dormer in the chancel to the north, and a penticed roof addition to the north side.

The south door is 12th-century, set in a gabled porch with a round order and one order of chevron zigzag moulding to the surround. The north door is blocked and round-headed.

Interior: The nave has three-bay round pier arcades with scalloped and stylised foliage capitals, including a curious cloverleaf-type capital to the south pier, and unchamfered arches. The soffit of the nave arcade is crimped, as is the chancel arch. The roof is a crown post type, braced. The tower arch has abaci imposts, with zigzag and patterned mouldings to the chancel windows.

The nook shafts to the chancel arch have an order of zigzag above. The most remarkable feature is the sanctuary, which comprises two storeys with a vaulted lower chamber. A separate chapel above is open to the chancel and separated from it by a Romanesque guard rail, one of the earliest pieces of church woodwork in the country. Restoration indicates these chambers were built inside the existing chancel walls.

The lower chamber has a quadripartite ribbed vault with thick ribs and single chamfer and keystone. The arch leading to the lower chapel from the chancel has two orders: a deeply cut inner roll moulding and an outer moulding of saw-tooth ornament, similar to formalised beak-heads, supported on small nook shafts. Outside is a label moulding composed of dog-tooth ornament, an early example.

The small room to the south of the upper chamber contains a wooden staircase and a Norman window on the south wall and is thought to have originally been a cell or oratory.

Fittings: The upper chancel chamber contains an altered and re-set piscina, moved during 12th-century alterations. The Romanesque guard rail, dating to the late 12th century, features a simple round-arched arcade on elegant thin stems with crocketed capitals, now badly worn. The altar rails, tower screen (formerly across the chancel), and pulpit are all Jacobean, dating to around 1620. The pulpit is panelled with strapwork decoration and has an ornate sounding board above. The font is early Norman, comprising a square bowl above a large circular stem and ring. Chequerboard painting decorates the chancel arch wall.

Stained glass: A small trefoil roundel in the east wall of the lower chapel shows the Virgin and Child, possibly from the 13th century. Some fragments of 17th-century glass remain.

Monuments: The north aisle wall has 14th-century arched, cusped wall recesses, one depressed. In the south porch on the west wall is a monument to Edward Fulham, Canon of Windsor, who died in 1694. The monument was erected in 1778 and is by Van Gelder. It features a grey stone ground with a white stone apron, coat of arms and floral decoration, topped with a garlanded white stone urn above in Late Palladian style.

The church is unique in the South of England. The two-storey arrangement of the chancel is extremely rare.