Church Of St Nicholas

SK29SE BRADFIELD TOWNGATE (west end), High Bradfield

9/114 Church of St. Nicholas 25/4/69 GV I

Church. Reused arcade piers of c1200. C14 tower, rest largely Perpendicular. Ashlar gritstone, lead roofs. West tower, 4-bay aisled nave with south porch and 3-bay chancel with 2-bay chapels. Wave- moulded plinth,offset buttresses between bays, embattled parapets with crocketed pinnacles throughout. West tower: 3 stages, plinth, tall diagonal buttresses. West door beneath 2-light cusped Y-tracery window. String course beneath similar 2-light bell openings. Another string course beneath parapet with corner pinnacles. Clock on south face dated 1867. Nave: South porch to bay 2 has diagonal buttresses. 3-light windows to other bays with panel tracery, depressed arches and hoodmoulds. Small flat-pointed window to bay 3, doorway to right of bay 4. Square-headed 2-light windows to clerestorey. Chapel and chancel windows similar to south aisle. East window: 5 lights with panel tracery and hoodmould beneath peaked stringcourse. Flanking gargoyles, one in the form of dragon, the other a dog. Apex cross. East window of north chapel has curvilinear tracery. North aisle has square-headed windows of 3 and 4 lights, some cusped, some plain. Tudor-arched 4-light window to north chapel. Interior: early work evidenced by octagonal and round nave piers with hacked-off capitals, keeled responds to chancel arch. All arches double-chamfered. Unusual sunken vestry in south chapel. On north wall a Saxon cross found in Low Bradfield and moved to church in 1886. Font: a plain Norman bowl with tall C19 cover. Reredos: incorporates medieval panels brought from Caen. Brass plaque fixed on south pier of chancel depicts John Morewood and his family, dated 1647. Glass mostly c19, early fragments in north aisle. Original nave roof with cambered tie beams and carved bosses. Chancel roof is of 1901.

Listing NGR: SK2671992541