Church Of St Nicholas

Church of St. Nicholas

The Church of St. Nicholas at Saintbury is a medieval parish church of Grade I importance, with building work spanning from the Norman period through the 19th century.

The nave contains Norman doorways and is constructed of uncoursed rubble. The chancel, north transept, and tower are all built from coursed squared and dressed limestone. The chancel dates to the 14th century, whilst the tower and north transept are 13th or 14th-century work. Both the north transept and chancel feature angle buttresses. The roof is of limestone slate with slightly stepped coping to the gable ends and roll-cross saddles. The tower rises in three diminishing stages from a projecting plinth and carries a ribbed broach spire.

A north porch, dated 1842, has a pointed arch with engaged columns to either side and a hood moulded with stops in the form of heads. The plan is unusual: a nave with north porch and north transept, with the tower positioned opposite in what would normally be the location of a south transept. The chancel lies to the east.

Windows throughout display a progression of medieval styles. The north transept has a single 2-light window with trefoil over in the west wall, a 3-light window with Decorated tracery in the north wall, and a single light with trefoil head elsewhere. The nave contains two Decorated windows of 2 lights with trefoils over, and a 4-light window with reticulated tracery. A large 19th-century pointed window with mullion and transom is set in the south wall of the tower. Steps up the south face of the nave lead to a small unpainted door with blind 'Y' tracery providing access to the tower; these steps partially conceal the blocking of a Norman south doorway. That Norman doorway has a tympanum carved with an incised lozenge pattern and double round arch over, with the outer arch supported on a moulded impost and the inner arch, set back slightly, supported on a lintel. A sundial in low relief is positioned above. The nave has single 2-light early Decorated windows on north and south walls, and a 4-light window with Perpendicular tracery in the west wall. All windows except the south window are fitted with diamond leaded panes; the south window has rectangular leaded panes. The tower features 1 and 2-light belfry windows and 1 and 2-light lucarns in the spire, all equipped with limestone louvres.

Internally, the nave is simply finished, with the indentation and outline of the Norman doorway still visible. A low-pitched 15th-century timber roof of four bays carries moulded principal rafters with braces resting on projecting stone corbels; ridge and common rafters are also moulded. Pointed flat-chamfered arches dying into their responds give access to the north transept and south tower. The north transept lies two steps below the nave and is roofed with a timber barrel vault decorated with a boss. A 13th-century piscina with trefoil head and credence shelf stands left of the entrance to the former rood loft in the east wall. The base of the tower contains a piscina and credence shelf with a 14th-century trefoiled head and ogee arch with crockets and pinnacles in the north wall. Eight steps in the west wall of the tower room give access from the nave. Two widely spaced steps lead up to the chancel, which is entered through an angular, low chancel arch. The chancel has an early 18th-century barrel vaulted roof with small bosses. A double piscina with triple sedilia, their heads worked with trefoil arches, is set in the window splay of the sanctuary window in the south wall. The floor of nave and transepts is flagged.

The font at the west end of the nave is 15th-century work with an octagonal bowl decorated with four-leafed flowers on each face. The pedestal has a central shaft with attached columns and is topped with an 18th-century ogee-shaped cover. A finely carved 17th-century chest with a 19th-century pointed canopy stands in the southwest corner of the nave. The west window contains some medieval glass with leaf decoration. An 18th-century pulpit with fielded panels is positioned in the nave. Nineteenth-century box pews furnish the nave and chancel. The north transept contains 15th-century pews with blind tracery on the ends; it also houses a 17th-century holy table standing on the mensa of the original stone altar. Nineteenth-century stained glass with vine leaves fills the east window. A late 19th or early 20th-century screen in the Arts and Crafts style divides the north transept from the nave. At the centre of the tower stands a stone dole table with a lozenge-shaped octagonal top on an octagonal support. An early 18th-century screen separates the nave from the chancel. A primitively carved figure, probably dating to the 11th century, depicting a man with a large face and diminutive body, is set in the internal splay of the chancel south window. A chandelier by C.R. Ashbee, inscribed "To Saintbury Church / In thanksgiving for / The birth of his / little daughter Mary / Elizabeth from her / Father C.R. Ashbee / Lady Day 1911", hangs in the chancel. Seventeenth-century altar rails remain in place. Reused stained glass fills the east window of the chancel.

The church contains numerous memorials and artifacts of historical significance. A painting of the Madonna and Child is set in the indentation formed by the blocking of the south doorway. A 19th-century decorated wall tablet to members of the Joseph family, with a full female figure in relief above the inscription, was executed by Stephens of Worcester. A brass plaque recording a 19th-century bequest is positioned left of the north door of the north transept. A small brass plaque in memory of Alice Bartlett (died circa 1574) is located below the north window. A twentieth-century memorial plaque occupies the east wall. The sanctuary east wall bears a 19th-century brass memorial plaque left of the window, with a painted memorial portrait of William Warburten (died circa 1647) to the right. The floor is composed largely of 17th and 18th-century ledger tombs.