Church Of St Nicholas

Church of St Nicholas, Combe Raleigh

This is a parish church largely dating from the 15th century, substantially restored in the 19th century, with the date 1700 and initials EF inscribed on the gable. The building is constructed of flint rubble with Bathstone and Beerstone dressings and slate roofs, gabled at the ends.

The plan consists of a nave, chancel, and west tower. The north side has a four-bay arcade extending into a two-bay chancel arcade (possibly forming part of the Denys chantry), with a south porch and south-east vestry. The mouldings of the north arcade, tower arch, and chancel arch show similarities suggesting a major phase of 15th-century rebuilding.

The chancel displays the 1700 date with initials EF on its gable. It contains a four-light east window with a depressed arch and tracery (probably 19th-century work), and a two-light south window with a hoodmould and trefoil-headed lights. The nave has a large square-headed four-light window, probably 16th-century, with cinquefoil-headed lights, accompanied by a buttress with set-offs. The south-east vestry is gabled with a door on its east side; the chimney stack shaft has been dismantled.

The south-west porch features a two-light window on the east return and a one-light window on the west return. It has a wide segmental-arched outer doorway with a hoodmould, stone-topped benches, a medieval ceiled wagon roof, and a moulded inner doorway with a three-centred arched head. A three-light window (19th or 20th-century) stands to the west of the porch.

The north aisle displays three-light traceried windows at its west and east ends, and four four-light square-headed windows (probably 16th-century) with cusped lights. One buttress with set-offs and a rectangular stair turret with a two-light square-headed window sit to the right of the turret, with a moulded doorframe to the priest's door to its left.

The two-stage battlemented tower has a south-east stair turret rising above it. The west face contains a moulded west doorway with a hoodmould and plank door, a three-light west window with 19th-century tracery, and a two-light cusped belfry opening with trefoil-headed lights and relieving arch. A similar belfry opening appears on the north face. The east and south faces have one-light belfry openings; the east face displays a mid-19th-century clock face on a flat bed, its frame signed by G. Wadham of Bath.

Interior

The walls are plastered except for the window jambs. A 15th-century Beerstone chancel arch with hollow-chamfered moulding has capitals only to the engaged shafts. The 15th-century moulded tower arch is carried on boldly carved corbels featuring variants of the green man. The four-bay north aisle has piers of the same section as the chancel arch, which abuts the arcade rather awkwardly. Two lower bays extend into the chancel.

The nave has a late 19th or 20th-century ceiled wagon roof. The aisle and north chancel chapel retain medieval ceiled wagon roofs. The chancel roof is a 19th-century two-bay arch-braced structure. Beerstone doorframes, rebated for a door, serve the rood loft stair turret. The sanctuary contains a trefoil-headed piscina and a probably 17th-century communion rail with thick turned balusters returning along the north side.

A medieval font, probably re-cut, has an octagonal bowl with quatrefoils and boldly carved foliage below. A 19th or early 20th-century pulpit is fashioned in a 17th-century manner. The 19th-century choir stalls and nave benches are accompanied by nave and aisle floors paved with probably early 19th-century red and black tiles, some with 17th-century ledger stones set within.

Stained Glass

The east window is probably by Drake of Exeter, dated 1885. The 1848 west window of the aisle commemorates members of the Band family (see Worfield House) and is probably by Beer of Exeter, featuring quarries and diagonally set texts. The tower window and westernmost nave window contain brightly coloured non-pictorial glass from circa 1830.

Memorials

A series of 18th, 19th, and 20th-century wall plaques, mostly of white marble, line the nave. The north chancel chapel contains a wall monument to James Bernard, Lord of the Manor (died 1823) and other family members, along with a brass to William Henry Bernard (died 1872).