Church Of St Nicholas

Church of St Nicholas

A medieval parish church of the 12th to 14th centuries with 19th-century alterations and additions, built in regular coursed and squared coursed limestone and ironstone, with Collyweston slate and lead roofs.

The building comprises a nave, chancel, south aisle, south porch, vestry and west tower. The chancel has a gabled roof with Collyweston slates and ashlar gable parapets. Its south elevation displays a 2-window range of 2-light windows with Y-tracery, parts of which have been renewed. A 3-light east window contains intersecting tracery. The north elevation of the chancel features one central single-light 12th-century window and one square-head low side window to the right, with a blocked doorway to the left of centre and 2 recesses to the far left.

The south aisle has a 2-window range of 2-light windows with Y-tracery, parts renewed, beneath a lean-to roof with plain ashlar parapet. A single-light west window is also present. The south porch is a centre gable structure with a roll-moulded and chamfered outer arch and a 12th-century inner doorway featuring one order of colonettes, stiff leaf capitals and zig-zag decoration around the arch.

A 19th-century vestry is attached to the east end of the south aisle, with a 2-light south window in the gable end and a square-head east door.

The north elevation of the nave has a 2-window range at lower level. The 2-light window with Y-tracery to the left is set in a blocked 12th-century arch, whilst a 12th-century single-light window stands to the right. The central north door has a 12th-century tympanum with diapering. Above, a clerestory of 3 windows with 2-light square-head openings, restored in the 19th century, sits beneath a shallow gabled roof with ashlar parapets.

The west tower is of three stages and unbuttressed. The lower stage contains a single-light 12th-century west window. The second stage displays a fragment of 14th-century tracery on its south face, whilst the bell chamber in the upper stage has 12th-century two-light openings to each face. Those to the north, east and west retain plain tympana and remains of one order of shafts, while that to the south has 14th-century tracery in place of the tympanum. A 14th-century quatrefoil frieze with corbel table below and castellated parapet above, complete with short corner pinnacles, crowns the tower. Gargoyles are positioned at the mid point of each facet.

Interior: The south nave arcade comprises 3 bays. The easternmost semi-circular arch is 12th-century, single-stepped with stiff leaf capitals to the respond, and originally gave access to a transept. The 2 outer arches are 13th-century, also semi-circular and double-chamfered with octagonal piers. A 13th-century double-chamfered chancel arch features octagonal responds. A 12th-century semi-circular tower arch with plain responds is also present. The former east window of the south aisle, featuring intersecting tracery, now forms a screen to the vestry. A wide 14th-century double-chamfered pointed arch is also notable.

The roof structures of the nave and chancel date to the 19th century, though the south aisle retains some earlier timbers.

Liturgical fixtures include a piscina with trefoil head to the right of the altar and a fine Easter Sepulchre to the left, featuring an arched recess in its lower stage supporting 2 aumbries and a stone book rest.

Late 19th-century choir stalls with a frieze of animals form a memorial to the Reverend Waller, who served with Dr. Livingstone in Africa.

The chancel contains various 19th-century monument tablets on the north wall and remains of inscribed tablets in the floor relating to the Ekins family.

Stained glass includes early 20th-century work in all lower windows of the nave and aisle and in the chancel east window. Two south aisle windows are probably by Kempe, with the right-hand example containing a fragment of earlier glass in the tracery.

The font is a 12th-century octagonal example with a Jacobean cover. A hatchment hangs above the tower arch.