Church Of St Nicholas

DUNKESWELL DUNKESWELL ST 10 NW 5/25 Church of St Nicholas - GV II Parish church. Norman font but the church itself was completely rebuilt 1865 - 68, the tower rebuilt again in 1953. Local stone and flint rubble with Bathstone detail; slate roof with crested ridge tiles. Plan: cruciform plan single phase church. Nave has narrow lean-to north and south aisles. North and south transepts. Chancel has a vestry on south side and small chapel on north side. Late C19 south porch and 1953 west tower. Consistent Decorated Gothic style. Exterior: the tower was rebuilt in 1953, a plainer version of the late C19 tower. It is relatively low; a single stage tower with embattled parapet and low angle buttresses. The belfry windows are lancets and there is a 2-centred arch west doorway with 3-light Decorated window above. Both north and south aisles are 3 bays and contains 2-light windows with steep gables over. The central doorway on the south side, a 2-centred arch with double chamfered surround, has a similar gable over and a late C19 timber gabled porch with shaped bargeboards in front. The transepts have angle buttresses and 3-light windows with Decorated tracery each end and the chancel is similar. Interior: nave, transepts and chancel have similar open roofs carried on arch- braced trusses with king posts and curving queen struts. The aisles have lean-to roofs. The trusses rest on corbels carved with various motifs; sacred emblems, armorial bearings, foliage and the like. Tall tower arch with moulded surround and capitals to the shafts. 3-bay arcades each side on cylindrical columns with moulded capitals. The transept and chancel arches are similar in style springing from moulded imposts. Plastered walls. Stone flag floor with encaustic tiles in the chantry. Carved Beerstone reredos; a blind arcade divided by half-engaged shafts with carved foliate capitals and cusped heads. The panels are painted with commandments and prayers. Oak altar rail with twisted cast iron standards with foliate brackets. Stalls and pews are plain pine. Plain oak lectern and Gothic pulpit. The only feature older than the 1860's is the Norman font. It is crudely carved but a most unusual example; a girdled font with a plait around below which are 2 rows of scallop ornament and above which an arcade of columns with carved capitals and segmental arches. The panels are all different and feature in order a bishop with crozier, a man and a woman, a sailing boat, a fabulous monster looking somewhat like an elephant, an archer shooting towards the monster, a man with a cross-handled sword, a king crowned with sword and shield, and a man in chains. What does it mean? Some plain memorials and some C19 and C20 stained glass.

Listing NGR: ST1414107807