Church Of St Nicholas

Church of St Nicholas, North Bradley

Anglican parish church of the 15th century, restored in 1861 by T.H. Wyatt. The building is constructed of coursed rubble stone and ashlar with a Welsh slate roof with coped verges.

The church plan comprises a nave with aisles, a chancel, north and south chapels, a south porch, and a west tower. The gabled 15th-century porch has diagonal buttresses and a moulded pointed doorway; above the doorway is a sundial inscribed "TEMPUS FUGIT", made by Rawlings of Bradford-on-Avon in 1777. A 18th-century memorial tablet is hung on the west wall.

The restored south aisle features a three-light square-headed window with cusped lights to the left of the porch. The nave clerestory contains three two-light windows with cusped lights. The 15th-century south chapel is distinguished by three large Tudor-arched four-light Perpendicular windows, buttresses with offsets, a planked door to the right, and a five-light east window, with a battlemented parapet. The chancel has a 19th-century square-headed south window, diagonal buttresses, and a 19th-century three-light east window in 14th-century style.

The gabled north vestry has square-headed cusped windows, a Tudor-arched west door, and a stone stack with offsets. The north chapel features a pair of fine 15th-century square-headed windows to the east and north; the north bay breaks forward with panels containing shields in quatrefoils. The chapel has diagonal buttresses with crocketed finials and a cornice with gargoyles to a battlemented parapet. The north aisle has two restored two-light windows and three two-light square-headed windows to the clerestory.

The three-stage Perpendicular tower has set-back buttresses and string courses. The north side has a gilded circular clockface. The west side features a moulded pointed doorway with 19th-century doors and square hoodmould, with a three-light Perpendicular window above. The middle stage contains an arrowloop. The bellstage has a three-light pointed Perpendicular window with ornamental pierced louvres to all sides. A polygonal stair turret with a pointed doorway sits on the south-east corner, accessed by 19th-century stone steps. The tower has a cornice and battlemented parapet.

Interior

The porch contains stone benches and has a collar rafter roof. The nave features a 19th-century three-bay tie-beam roof with cusped vertical struts and plainer trusses to the half-bays. A tall pointed tower arch is partly filled by a 20th-century organ gallery. The 19th-century three-bay arcades are in 13th-century style with cylindrical piers and pointed arches; the aisles have lean-to 19th-century roofs.

The north chapel is a memorial to Emma, mother of Archbishop John Stafford of Canterbury, who died in 1446. The chapel has a fine moulded rib-panelled ceiling with quatrefoils containing carved floral designs. A cusped pointed piscina is set on the south wall. A coffin lid below the north window has quatrefoil panels to the front and an incised figure of a woman on top.

The 15th-century south chapel has a moulded rib-panelled ceiling and a collection of 18th-century wall tablets. These include a rococo marble tablet with egg and dart mouldings and richly carved floral decoration to Henry Long (died 1727), attributed to Ford, and a Baroque marble tablet with twisted columns and a cornice to an urn to William Trenchard (died 1733). A wide Tudor-arched opening between the chancel and south chapel formerly housed the organ.

The chancel has a 19th-century moulded pointed chancel arch and a scissor rafter roof. A two-seat 19th-century sedilia is set in a Perpendicular-arched recess.

The church contains a cast-iron and wooden 19th-century communion rail, a 15th-century-style stone panelled reredos, and a polychrome tiled floor in the chancel. Eighteenth-century brass candelabra are located in the chancel and chapels. A 17th-century polygonal carved wooden pulpit has been reset on a 19th-century stone plinth. An octagonal Perpendicular font is decorated with symbols of the Passion in cusped panels, with a 19th-century font cover. A charity board in the north aisle records a gift of 1787 by Rachel Long. The south chancel window contains stained glass by T.R. Lamont, made in memory of his wives Mary and Bessie in the 1880s. A marble tablet above the pulpit commemorates Reverend Charles Daubeny, who died in 1827 and was founder of Daubeny Almshouses; the tablet is signed by Reeves of Bath.