Church Of St Nicholas

The Church of St Nicholas is a parish church dating from 1866-7, designed by Alexander Graham. It is constructed of snecked rock-faced sandstone with ashlar dressings, and has a slate roof with distinctive blue and purple bands, some shaped slates, and a crested tile ridge. The church comprises a nave, a lower chancel with an apsidal east end, and a north transept with a lean-to vestry attached at the angle with the chancel. The west wall features two chamfered lancet windows below a rose window. The north and south nave walls each have three windows with two trefoiled lights, a quatrefoil above a pointed head, and buttresses between the bays. A timber porch with a steep roof, resting on a stone base, is situated on the south side to the right of the left-hand window. The porch's gable truss has curved braces rising to a collar, a turned king post, and shaped bargeboards. The north gable of the transept contains a window of three trefoiled lights below a foiled circle. The apsidal east end has five windows with bar tracery, each with a quatrefoil above a trefoil-headed light. A matching two-light window is situated on the south side of the chancel. A white-painted timber bellcote, boarded below the trefoiled bell openings, rises above the western bay of the nave, supporting a slated spirelet.

Inside, the nave and chancel have softwood boarded roofs. The nave roof features high collars with bolted king posts, straight braces, and wall posts which rise from stone corbels. The transept arch is pointed and chamfered, while the chancel arch is chamfered in two orders, the inner order springing from foliated corbels. A frieze of tiles runs along the wallhead of the chancel, and a plain stone doorway provides access to the vestry. A hexagonal oak pulpit is also present. The transept contains mural tablets commemorating John Ewart (died 1871) and James Mounsey (died 1835). Coloured glass is found in the west and some of the north windows, and the chancel windows contain stained glass depicting Christ and the four Evangelists.