Church Of St Nicholas

The Church of St Nicholas is a Grade I listed building located in High Bradfield. It features reused arcade piers dating from around 1200, a 14th-century tower, and the rest of the structure is largely in the Perpendicular style. Constructed from ashlar gritstone with lead roofs, the church includes a west tower, a four-bay aisled nave with a south porch, and a three-bay chancel with two chapels.

The exterior showcases a wave-moulded plinth, offset buttresses between the bays, and embattled parapets adorned with crocketed pinnacles. The west tower has three stages, a plinth, and tall diagonal buttresses. The west door is located beneath a two-light cusped Y-tracery window, with a string course below similar two-light bell openings and another string course beneath the parapet featuring corner pinnacles. A clock on the south face is dated 1867.

The nave has a south porch at bay 2, which also features diagonal buttresses. The other bays contain three-light windows with panel tracery, depressed arches, and hoodmoulds. There is a small flat-pointed window at bay 3 and a doorway to the right of bay 4. The clerestorey has square-headed two-light windows. The chapel and chancel windows are similar to those in the south aisle, while the east window consists of five lights with panel tracery and a hoodmould beneath a peaked string course, flanked by gargoyles—one shaped like a dragon and the other like a dog—with an apex cross above. The east window of the north chapel features curvilinear tracery, and the north aisle has square-headed windows with three and four lights, some of which are cusped and some plain. A Tudor-arched four-light window is present in the north chapel.

Inside, early work is indicated by octagonal and round nave piers with hacked-off capitals and keeled responds to the chancel arch. All arches are double-chamfered. There is an unusual sunken vestry in the south chapel, and on the north wall, a Saxon cross found in Low Bradfield was moved to the church in 1886. The font is a plain Norman bowl with a tall 19th-century cover. The reredos incorporates medieval panels brought from Caen. A brass plaque fixed on the south pier of the chancel depicts John Morewood and his family, dated 1647. The glass is mostly from the 19th century, with some early fragments in the north aisle. The original nave roof features cambered tie beams and carved bosses, while the chancel roof was added in 1901.