Church Of St Nicholas

The Church of St Nicholas is an Anglican parish church with a history spanning the 13th and 14th centuries, although it was heavily restored and largely rebuilt in 1860 by B. Ferrey. The church comprises a west tower, a nave, a north porch, a south aisle, a chancel, and a vestry. It is constructed of rubble with freestone dressings, using snecked and squared rubble for the nave and chancel, and has slate roofs with coped raised verges.

The west tower, likely dating to the 13th century, features a saddleback roof concealed behind a plain parapet. It has two stages with diagonal buttresses and a moulded stringcourse with gargoyles. A 2-light cusped lancet window is on the ground floor, above which lies a cusped hexagonal light. The bell stage contains single and 2-light windows. The gabled north porch has angle buttresses and a double, hollow-chamfered outer doorway, restored with a hoodmould and square stops. Nave windows are 3-light, in a 19th-century Perpendicular style. The chancel features 19th-century windows, lancets to the sides, and a 3-light Geometrical style east window. The south aisle contains three 2-light windows with cusped heads. The north door is fitted with strap hinges set within a chamfered, depressed ogee-headed surround.

Internally, the church has an early Gothic style 3-bay south arcade from 1860. The C13 tower arch is double chamfered. A font, likely from the 18th century, is made of ashlar with an octagonal bowl, a band of quatrefoils, and a gadrooned base. The pulpit, roof, and associated fittings all date from the 1860s onward. Glass in the north-east nave window includes 14th-century borderwork fragments, possibly foreign, with an oval medallion depicting an angel on a blue background and the upper section of St John the Evangelist. The south-west chancel window contains a 14th century French figure of St. Barbara holding a tower. A 15th-century Low Countries' panel in the north-west chancel window depicts St. Anthony holding a staff and accompanied by a pig. Tower glass depicts John the Baptist baptizing Christ with a tower in the background. A substantial fragment of a Saxon cross with interlace on two sides is situated in the chancel. The tower contains inscribed oval plaques commemorating Marie Smith (1678), Griffin Smith (1681), and an individual from 1693, all set within elaborate surrounds with drapery. A south aisle plaque commemorates Sir Caesar Hawkins, who died in 1800, displaying an urn finial. Further inscribed plaques from the late 18th and early 19th centuries relate to the Hawkins and Inigo-Jones families. The nave holds a Hudleston hatchment; the Royal Arms from 1860; and several Hudleston monuments, mostly square inscribed plaques, including those for John (died 1749), Lawson (died 1743), Charlotte (died 1821), and William (died 1766) with a triglyph frieze. Baroque plaques commemorate Lady Diones Harington (died 1674) and John Harington (died 1674), both displaying arms.