Church Of St Nicholas

The Church of St Nicholas is a parish church largely dating to the late 12th century, with significant additions and alterations made in the 14th and 15th centuries. A north nave wall insert is from the 17th century, and a general restoration took place in 1869. The church is constructed of coursed, squared rubble with ashlar dressings, with the north chapel built entirely of ashlar. It has tiled, gable-ended roofs with end stone copings.

The architectural style is a mix of Romanesque for the 12th-century arcade and Perpendicular for the remainder of the church. The west tower has two stages separated by a string course and an embattled parapet with corner gargoyles. It features a 3-light, pointed west window, and the bell stage has pointed 2-light windows with panel tracery and stone panels, along with a chamfered vice door. The south aisle’s outer windows and central window are pointed with panel tracery, the central window further distinguished by Y-tracery. The north nave wall features 19th-century copies of the south aisle windows. The north chapel has an embattled parapet with gargoyles and a 4-centred east window with panel tracery. The east chancel window is a 19th-century pointed window of three lights, and the south chancel window is also pointed. The south porch has a moulded 4-centred arch in a square surround with carved foliage in the spandrels and a label with head stops. The south door is 4-centred and moulded, with a heavy ribbed plank door. The porch’s roof is an arch braced collar beam structure with a carved wall plate and bosses.

Internally, the church showcases a four-bay arcade with pointed arches of two chamfered orders on round piers with moulded bases and fluted collarette capitals. A 19th-century pointed chancel arch springs from corbels, and a pointed tower arch has shafted jambs. A squint provides a view from the aisle to the chancel. Other internal features include a 19th-century wooden pulpit, an octagonal stone font, 19th-century glass, and monuments dating from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. A particularly notable monument is dedicated to Sir Hugh Wyndham kt (1692), featuring a statue of a judge with mourners, flanked by composite columns with spiral shafts supporting a segmental canopy. A piscina has an ogee-headed cusped opening, and a sedile has been restored with a square head. There are wagon roofs from the 16th century in the nave and aisles, displaying moulded members, carved bosses, and wall-plates. The chapel’s fan-vaulting springs from carved angel corbels.