Parish Church Of Saint Nicholas

The Parish Church of St Nicholas is an Anglican church with Saxon origins, significantly altered and partially rebuilt during the 11th and 12th centuries. It underwent restoration in the 18th century and again around 1880. The church is constructed of rubble stone walls with ashlar dressings and some ashlar facing, covered by stone slate roofs. It comprises a nave, a chancel under a central tower, a sanctuary, and a south porch.

The south porch has a coped gable and a doorway with a flat lintol. A 12th-century corbel table runs along the south wall of the nave, featuring carved heads. The nave also contains two round-headed windows from the 18th century. The three-stage tower has a reduced top stage with a lead saddle-back roof and coped gables. It features shallow buttresses and a round-headed 18th-century window on its lowest stage, with rectangular louvred openings to the belfry. The sanctuary's south wall has a low rectangular window and, to the east, a 12th-century window with a moulded surround. The east window is a triple lancet with a cusped centre light, complemented by a smaller 12th-century window above. A matching 12th-century window is found on the north wall of the sanctuary, alongside a doorway to a loft. The north wall of the tower includes a 12th-century window in its lowest stage. The north wall of the nave features a 12th-century doorway with a flat lintol and relieving arch, as well as two 12th-century windows and a corbel table mirroring the south wall. The inner 12th-century door to the porch has a semi-circular arch, supported by shafts with scalloped caps, and is flanked by a pair of 18th-century panelled oak doors.

Internally, the walls have been scraped, and the floor is of flagstone. The sanctuary’s roof is a quadripartite vault with moulded ribs resting on shafts, some with billet-moulded caps. The western arch is of three orders, the inner order and the west face of the outer order being moulded with shallow chevron ornamentation, supported by shafts with scalloped caps. The abaci on each side of the shafts continue as a string course to the outer walls. The chancel, beneath the tower, features a similar vault on shafts with caps of varying designs. The western arch is stilted, of two orders, with moulded inner orders and the west face of the outer orders, and is also supported by shafts with scalloped caps. The nave roof is of oak, dating from around 1930. A stone corbel is located west of the south door. Other features include a plain 12th-century circular font, a 19th-century west gallery, two 18th-century hatchments above the gallery, a fragment of 12th-century painting on the north wall of the nave, a painted 18th-century text over the chancel arch, a 16th-century table tomb on the north wall of the sanctuary, an early 19th-century wall tablet, and 19th-century pews, a pulpit, and a lectern. The church is a good example of a small Norman church, largely unaltered.