Church Of St Nicholas

Church of St Nicholas

This is a parish church with origins in the 12th century, though the building was mostly rebuilt in 1872–3 by James Mountford Allen, with the tower rebuilt in 1900 by E Buckle. The walls are constructed from local stone, cut and squared, with Ham stone dressing. The roofs are stone slate between stepped coped gables with finials.

The church has a six-cell plan comprising a three-bay chancel, four-bay nave, north and south aisles, a two-bay north-east chantry chapel, and a two-bay south-east organ chamber and vestry, with a west tower and south porch. The architectural style throughout is predominantly 14th and 15th century.

The chancel features a plinth, cill course, and double offset corner buttresses. Its east window and south window are both three-light with geometric tracery, set under pointed labels with headstops. The organ chamber has a diagonal corner buttress, a simpler two-light traceried window, and a pointed arched doorway on its south side, with a further two-light window to the east. The south aisle has bay buttresses and three-light geometric traceried windows along its south wall, with a blank west wall. The south porch, positioned on the second bay from the west, features pointed arch doorways in 13th-century style, the inner one decorated with ball flower ornament. The north-east chantry chapel has a diagonal corner buttress, a late 15th-century three-light east window, and a notably wide north window. The north aisle, which was not rebuilt, retains bay buttresses with offsets and three-light late 15th-century pointed arched windows without labels; a blocked moulded 15th-century doorway survives in the second bay from the east, with a blank west wall.

The tower is divided into three stages with a plinth and string courses, surmounted by a battlemented parapet with corner pinnacles and angled corner buttresses with offsets extending to full height. A square plan stair turret with pitched roof occupies the south-east corner, rising two stages high. An unusual ship weathervane crowns the structure. The west face displays a four-light 15th-century traceried window with transome and subarcuation, its label forming a step up in the string course. The second stage has a two-light window to the north and small cusped lancets to the south and west, with a two-light window at the head of the stair turret featuring curvilinear tracery. The third stage has tall two-light 15th-century traceried windows with labels and pierced wood baffles on all faces.

Internally, the chancel ceiling is ribbed and boarded in four-plane form, with late 19th-century furnishings including a brass communion rail in early Art Nouveau manner. The double arch into the chantry chapel almost certainly dates from the 13th century, featuring octagonal piers with broached bases, moulded capitals, and double chamfer arches. The easternmost arch contains an elaborate canopied tomb, richly carved with considerable traces of colour, supporting two recumbent effigies on a panelled slab. The canopy has four-centre finely cusped arches and quatrefoil and rose coffering. The tomb commemorates William Cavent, High Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset, who died around 1463. The chantry chapel contains a north-east corner canopy, probably dating from the early 16th century, and a narrow arch into the north aisle that may be 13th century. The nave arcade is styled after the 13th century, but a photograph in the church demonstrates it to be a complete rebuild with all surviving work being 19th century. The font, positioned in the under-tower space, has a plain octagonal bowl on a tall octagonal shaft with moulded base and collar, probably dating from the 13th century. Several minor 18th-century memorial tablets are mounted on the west wall of the north aisle. The first known rector is recorded from 1175, though otherwise few historical details are documented.