Church Of St Nicholas

Church of St Nicholas, Mill Street, Broadwey, Weymouth

This is an Anglican parish church containing medieval fragments but substantially rebuilt in the 19th century. The building preserves a 12th-century south door from its medieval origins, but the major phases of construction are: north aisle (1815), nave (1834), chancel and vestry (1874), and south aisle and chapel (1902 and 1904).

The church is constructed primarily in Portland stone ashlar, with rubble walling to the north aisle, and has slate or lead roofs. The plan consists of a nave with a bell turret flanked by north and south aisles. The west wall extends down to basement level, well below the adjacent churchyard, and is exposed in the approach drive to the Manor House.

The exterior is distinguished by rather heavy 19th-century neo-Norman styling. The west front features a double bell turret with cusped openings and terminal cross above a reset 15th-century three-light window in Ham stone, with casement and label moulds and head stops carved as a bishop and king. To the left is a two-light 16th-century window under a square label course, and to the right a three-light Perpendicular window with label to block stops. The high plinth includes a small double lancet on the right, leading to the boiler room.

The south front has a three-light window to block stops on the left and to carved king and queen on the right. Between these stands a 14th-century porch with coped gable and cross over a steep pointed plain outer doorway. The inner doorway is a rich Norman composition with roll, chevron and billet moulds, on column responds with a serpent capital to the left and a bearded head to the right. The doors are 19th-century work. A chamfered stone eaves course runs under a cast-iron gutter with square hopper-heads and downpipes fixed by splayed cleats, including one to the porch.

At the west end of the aisle is a wall monument under a label and serrated round arch, commemorating William Hopkins the Elder and his wife Mary (died 4 July), and William and Mary, their son and daughter (died 22 September 1643), with the Latin inscription 'Quod Estis Furimus. Quod Sumus Eritis' beneath.

Set back at the east end of the south aisle is the chapel, with a heavy neo-Norman doorway and adjacent small window. A modillion eaves cornice and cast-iron downpipe are present. The east end is coped with a roll saddle above an oculus and a flush round-arched light. The projecting chancel has a spiky oculus above a two-light neo-Norman window. Built into the south wall is a tablet with raised oval panel and sunk corners with fans in relief, commemorating Revd Robert Marriott (died 1819). A similar monument to John Furmedge (died 1879) is on the north side; both slabs are identical in style to those in the Firth monument in the churchyard. The vestry has a large neo-Norman window with scallop and billet embellishments and links to a 20th-century church room.

The north side has two three-light windows with interlaced bars without cusping and a very low pitched lead roof.

Interior: The walls are plain and whitewashed. The wide nave has a three-bay neo-Norman south arcade carrying four-centred arches, and a four-bay north arcade of plain semicircular arches on slender octagonal piers with thin capitals and no bases. At the west end is a length of plain wall incorporating a plain arched opening at window height. The roof has trusses with queen and king posts and is close-boarded.

The south aisle has a barrel ceiling in 36 compartments with 30 carved wooden bosses. An organ at the east end blocks a richly modelled neo-Norman archway.

The chancel arch has a large roll-mould and chevron on cushion caps. The north aisle has a plain plastered ceiling and a blind arch at the east end; the vestry beyond has a scissor truss roof.

The chancel rises on two steps and has a rafter roof, with blocked round arches to north and south, the vestry door inset to the north. The sanctuary, with rich floor tiling, is partly enclosed by a screen approximately 2 metres high.

Fittings include a fine 17th-century five-sided pulpit, 19th-century pitch pine pews, and a 12th-century Purbeck marble round font with fluted bowl on a plain stem and four thin supports. A marble tablet in the vestry commemorates William Kellaway (1839). A brass communion rail has been brought forward into the first bay of the nave.