Church Of St Nicholas Of Mira

The Church of St Nicholas of Mira is an Anglican parish church dating back to the 12th century, with subsequent alterations and additions in the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. A restoration occurred in 1864, led by T.H. Wyatt. The church is constructed of chequered flint and limestone, featuring a tiled roof with coped verges and cross finials. It consists of a nave, a south chapel, and a chancel, accompanied by a 20th-century bellcote and a south doorway.

The church’s most distinctive feature is its remarkably preserved Romanesque south doorway. It is round-arched, adorned with billet, roll, and irregular chevron ornament set upon attached shafts. The shafts bear symbolic carvings of a horse-serpent, a bird of prey, and a human figure. A lintel displays a well-preserved carving depicting a boar hunt, featuring dogs, a boar, and a man. The tympanum contains symbolic carvings of a beaded star preaching cross, a bishop with a staff, and a tree with birds. The door itself is a 19th-century addition with ornamental hinges. To the left of the doorway is a 16th-century-style two-light window with a hoodmould. The south chapel contains a restored three-light window with reticulated tracery and a hoodmould, a chamfered lancet, and a reset Medieval coffin lid to the east. The chancel has a small chamfered light, a restored square-headed 14th-century window with a hoodmould, and a restored three-light pointed Perpendicular window with a hoodmould at its east end. A lean-to vestry on the north side, dating from the 19th century, has cusped lancets and an ashlar stack with offsets, and displays reset carved stone heraldic arms of Henry Stourton and his wife Katherine Frampton, moved from the former north porch. A reset Medieval coffin lid is embedded in the north wall of the chancel. The north side of the nave has two 19th-century two-light square-headed cusped windows, and a reset scratch dial on a buttress, alongside cast-iron rainwater heads dated 1863. The west end features three stepped 14th-century lancets, surmounted by a 14th-century cusped lancet. A 20th-century timber bellcote with a simple spire tops the west end.

Inside, the nave has a three-bay 19th-century arch-braced collar truss roof supported by stone corbels, and flagstone floors. The chancel arch is double-chamfered, resting on square chamfered responds, with a squint providing a view into the south chapel. The south chapel includes a double-chamfered arch and some surviving Medieval encaustic tiles. A fine chest tomb features strapwork panels and initials "IH," with a recumbent effigy of William Haytor, who died circa 1623. A 12th-century carved face known as a “tongue-poker” is set into the south wall below the ridge. The chancel has a 19th-century scissor-rafter roof, a Minton-tiled floor, a 19th-century trefoil piscina and aumbry on the north wall, and a chamfered pointed niche also on the north wall, containing a freestanding Medieval carving depicting the Crucifixion in Roman style. The church also contains 19th-century pews, a pulpit, and choir stalls. A 12th-century bowl font sits on an octagonal plinth, and parts of a former wooden chancel screen have been reused in the reading desk. The church holds good stained glass from the 1860s, created by Lavers and Barraud, with the east window dedicated to Sidney, Lord Herbert of Wilton House. The 1864 restoration was funded by Lady Herbert of Lea, widow of Sidney Lord Herbert, and carried out by Davies and Son of Frome.