Parish Church Of Saint Nicholas

The Parish Church of Saint Nicholas is an Anglican parish church located in Worth Matravers. It primarily dates from the 12th century, with the south wall of the chancel rebuilt in the 13th century and the east wall in the 14th century. A porch was added in the 18th century. The church features rubble stone walls and stone slate roofs with coped gables and corbel tables adorned with carved heads.

The structure consists of a nave, chancel, west tower, and south porch. The tower has three stages and is topped with a pyramidal stone slate roof that includes a moulded corbel table. It has small square-headed belfry windows and rectangular windows on the lowest stage. The south wall of the nave is supported by shallow buttresses at both ends and in the center. There are two 12th-century round-headed windows positioned high, one 13th-century lancet window at the east end, and a rectangular window that lights a squint into the chancel. A blocked triangular-headed doorway is also present.

The outer door to the porch features a flat lintel on the outside and a segmental inner arch with chevron ornamentation that has been re-set. The inner door, dating from the 12th century, has a carved tympanum that is badly eroded and includes chevron ornamentation. Inside the porch, some coffin slabs have been re-set, and there is a late medieval canopy on the east wall.

Both the north and south walls of the chancel have two 13th-century lancet windows, and there is a priest's door in the south wall. The east window, dating from the 14th century, consists of three lights with reticulated tracery. The north wall of the nave has three 12th-century round-headed windows at a high level and a 13th-century lancet window at the east end. A square-headed doorway is flanked by shallow buttresses that converge over the door, supporting a central buttress.

Internally, the roofs of the nave and chancel are from the 19th century and are of King-post form. The chancel arch, dating from the 12th century, has three orders with chevron ornamentation, circular shafts, and scalloped capitals. Flanking this arch are the remains of blocked openings, which the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments believes were removed from elsewhere. In the east wall of the chancel, there is a piscina with a niche above it, and a squint in the south wall has an external window. There are two small round-headed windows above the chancel arch, along with a few 18th and early 19th-century wall tablets. The font, pulpit, and west gallery are all from the 19th century. This church is a notable example of a small 12th-century church that remains largely unaltered.