Church of St Nicholas

Church of St Nicholas

This is a parish church, redundant since 1971. The building is primarily Early Norman and Early English in style, with substantial Perpendicular additions. It was largely rebuilt in the 13th century from an early 12th-century core, with further alterations in the 14th and early to mid-15th centuries, extended and altered again in the 16th and 17th centuries. It underwent restoration in 1865, with further repairs in the 20th century.

The church is constructed from Cotswold oolitic limestone ashlar and rubble, with some red brick to the rear, and is roofed with Welsh slate and plain tile with stone coping.

The building comprises a west tower with spire, a six-bay nave, a two-bay chancel continuous with the nave, north and south aisles, the main south porch, a further porch towards the east end of the south aisle, a small north-west addition against the tower, and a vestry at the north-east corner.

The mid-15th-century tower rises in three stages with a chamfered plinth, moulded stringcourses, diagonal corner buttresses with offsets rising to the top of the second stage, and small panelled buttresses to the third stage. It has an embattled parapet with traceried panels and corner pinnacles, restored in 1993–1994. The first stage contains a large four-light window in the west elevation, a three-light south window, and an infilled north window which rises above the stringcourse and is partly obscured by a north-west extension. Each face of the second stage has a window of mostly blank panelling with an upper transom and an elaborately-moulded ogee-arched head with flanking crocketed pinnacles. The third stage has triple ogee-headed bell openings with crockets and pinnacles. All windows display Perpendicular tracery. The tall octagonal stone spire has attached pinnacles and on each cardinal face is an ornate crocketed lucarne. Its upper part was removed in the 18th century and replaced with a coronet with pinnacles and a lead ogee cap with gilded ball finial. A large bracket clock, first recorded in 1715, is mounted on the south side of the tower.

The western bay of the south side of the nave has an offset buttress and a two-light pointed-arched window with 14th/15th-century tracery and hoodmould with labels. The gabled south porch, originally with an upper room, was added in 1347 and rebuilt in the mid-19th century. The entrance doorway has a moulded pointed-arched surround and a pair of low timber gates with decorative ironwork, with a small lancet above. To the east, the five bays of the south elevation of the south aisle are defined by buttresses with two offsets rising to the underside of a moulded corbel table. Each bay contains a large 13th-century semi-circular arched window of three lights in an Early English surround with jamb shafts and moulded capitals and bases, under a continuous hoodmould. The windows were remodelled in the 15th century when Perpendicular tracery was inserted. In the 19th century, the windows in the west bay and the west gable wall were restored to a 13th-century design with plate tracery. Between bays four and five is a stone porch with a timber door bearing moulded fillets, set in an ashlar surround with chamfered stepped jambs and a segmental arched head. The window in the south aisle's east gable wall has an Early English surround with inserted 14th-century Decorated tracery and a hoodmould. The east wall of the chancel has a 15th-century five-light window with Perpendicular tracery. The vestry at the north-east corner has a single broad lancet in its east wall; its north wall is blank. The east bay of the 15th-century north aisle is built of brick and projects forward, containing a Decorated window. The adjacent two bays each have a Perpendicular window beneath a gable, and the remaining windows to the west are 16th/17th century. Attached to the western end of the aisle is an addition with an offset buttress and a wide doorway with moulded surround and semi-circular head. The nave roof has two Decorated gabled dormer windows added in the mid-19th century.

The entrance to the nave within the main south porch is 12th century and features a shouldered doorcase with a pair of 19th-century timber plank doors set within a semi-circular surround with renewed nook shafts, foliage capitals, and a tympanum carved with an Agnus Dei flanked by foliage. The door retains a replica sanctuary knocker in the form of a demon-like figure (the original is at the Museum of Gloucester). Above the door within the nave is the Royal Coat of Arms of Charles II, its date altered to 1689.

The tower interior has tall double-chamfered arches, a staircase in the south-west angle, and lierne vaulting (short, linking ribs between the main ribs). The belfry stage above contains a 17th-century timber bell frame with six bells. The walls in the body of the church are generally plastered, as are the ceilings, and the floors are tiled.

The six-bay north arcade features a double-chamfered pointed arch to the western bay, probably 15th century, followed by two early 12th-century round arches carried on short circular piers. The three eastern bays have early 13th-century pointed arches on more slender circular piers; one has a moulded capital and two have stiff-leaf decoration. The south arcade of four bays is early 13th century with double-chamfered pointed arches and more slender cylindrical piers; the two easternmost piers have stiff-leaf capitals.

The nave has a 19th-century open timber roof with four king-post trusses with decorative upper struts supported on carved stone corbels. Between the nave and chancel is an arch-braced truss springing from corbels carved with angels.

The chancel contains encaustic tiles from Maw & Co, including a decorative dado, a simple communion rail, and quadruple squints in the north and south walls inserted in the early 16th century to provide views of the sanctuary from the aisles. The north wall has a door to the vestry, and the south wall has a large piscina with credence. The narrow north aisle has a timber panelled screen at its east end and strainer quadrant arches added in 1934–1935 by N H Waller. The south aisle is broader and contains at its east end a plain octagonal stone font, possibly 16th century with a possibly renewed bowl. An alabaster chest tomb displays painted reclining figures of alderman John Walton (died 1626) and his wife, Alice (died 1620). The front of the tomb is carved with two arched panels flanked by pairs of fluted Ionic columns, each containing a kneeling figure; it was restored in 1980. Fixed to the west wall of the south aisle is a reset section of Jacobean oak panelling from the former west gallery, removed around 1865.

Most of the interior fittings are 19th century and include linenfold pews and a timber Perpendicular pulpit. The stained glass in the east chancel window and the east window in the south aisle is by Moons & Son of Bristol and dates to 1882; the south aisle west window is probably by Joseph Bell. Numerous wall tablets and monuments date from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.

On the south side of the church, between the south-west corner of the tower and the corner of the south aisle, are cast-iron square railings of probable early 19th-century date, topped with spiked heads except for two simple urn heads. Double gates stand opposite the entrance to the main south porch.