Church of St Nicolas

Church of St Nicolas

A church with a core dating from the 12th century, extended with aisles also in the later 12th century. The 14th century saw the addition of a tower to the west and a chancel to the east. The building was substantially restored in 1845 by the architect William Butterfield, and a south porch was added in 1862.

The exterior is constructed of carstone and ironstone blocks, with some coursed Bargate stone on the transept. Bargate and clunch dressings form the lower sections, with some Bathstone dressings to the upper part of the tower. The roof is covered with Horsham slate in a pentice form on the south side and nave, while the west tower carries a shingled pyramidal roof with a raised ridge and gablets.

The plan is cruciform with the tower positioned to the west and a porch to the south. The square tower has quoined angles and offset string courses. The upper stage features two-light round arched louvred windows, and irregular "scaffold holes" with tile-on-edge filling. A wooden diamond-shaped clock face sits on the south side above a further lancet window. A recut two-light window with trefoil head occupies the south side, while a large three-light window of Decorated style is set in a deep coved surround under hood moulding to the west face. A studded and strap-hinged door sits below. A former stair turret exists at the north-west angle.

The north aisle has two square-headed windows with ogee tracery and buttresses to the ends and centre. The north transept features a Decorated-style window of 19th-century date, inserted during 1862 to 1866 when both transepts were lengthened. A vestry was added to the north with battlemented parapets and ogee-headed lancet windows.

The east end has diagonal buttresses at the ends and a five-light leaded window with banks of quatrefoil tracery above. The south aisle contains square-headed two-light windows with ogee arches. The south porch is timber-framed and gabled with a braced arched entrance. The bargeboards are arcaded with foliate decoration, and six leaded arched windows sit on rendered plinth walls at the sides.

The interior is spacious with aisles opening to the nave through wide bays carried on round pier arcades. The arches feature "crimped" decoration at the crossing and to the doors. The tower arch has half-octagonal pier responds with chamfer and hood moulds, and braced tower posts are visible inside. The chancel arch is wide and high. To its west are the beginnings of another wide transverse arch that was never completed, now capped by two early 20th-century statues. This may represent either the west arch of a former crossing or a former chancel arch superseded before completion, with the Victoria County History favouring the latter interpretation.

The main arch of the north transept (Knoll Chapel) is of two orders with moulded imposts. The south transept arch has shafts of trefoil section and circular abaci supporting a large floral corbel for a multi-moulded ribbed arch. The chancel roof is of painted hammer-beam construction.

Interior fittings include triple sedilia on the south wall with moulded arches on trefoiled inner order. The east window is flanked by a fine tabernacle and reredos by William Butterfield, both decorated with mosaic, crocketed gables and tracery arcading above. A 14th-century parclose screen occupies the south transept, featuring single panels with ogee-tracery heads. The 1845 pulpit is octagonal and panelled on eight columns with ogee crocketed panels formed from screen remains. A late 16th-century lectern on a salamonic twist stand with strapwork base exists, along with an octagonal font.

Monuments include fragmentary brasses on the north side of the chancel and an 1880 memorial to Rosa Chadwick Healey, an elaborate brass featuring an angel beneath a Gothic arch with wall paintings of St Rosa and St Tabitha. An Art Nouveau niche memorial dates from 1910 on the east wall of the north transept.