Church of St. Nidan (new church)

Church of St. Nidan (new church)

A cruciform church in the Early English style of pre-archaeological character, built predominantly of red gritstone rubble with sandstone dressings. The building comprises an embattled west tower, nave and transepts with quadrant vestry and organ room positioned in their angles. The main body of the church has clasping buttresses at the angles. The roof is modern slate with stone copings and moulded kneelers, topped with a cross at the east gable.

The nave consists of two bays, each with a single lancet window. Stepped lancet windows occupy the east gable and the gable ends of the transepts. The west tower incorporates an entrance porch in its lower part, featuring a pointed arched doorway. Above this is a moulded string course, with the belfry at mid-height containing louvred lancet openings in recessed panels with corbelled heads. The corbelled upper stage houses the clock room, marked by a continuous hood mould with pointed arches over the clock faces on the east and west sides. An embattled parapet crowns the tower. The single storey circular vestry and organ room has a single door and two rectangular lights with a continuous string above.

The entrance passes through the lower stage of the west tower into a porch with steps leading up to the belfry above and a pointed arched doorway into the main body of the church. The interior comprises a nave of two roof bays, single bay transepts, and a chancel of three roof bays, all with exposed beams. A single queen post truss spans above the front of the west gallery, with angled braces above and curving braces below, carried down to wall posts supported on moulded corbels. Two king post trusses in the chancel similarly have braces carried down to wall posts supported on moulded corbels. The walls are plastered and painted, with pointed chamfered arches to the transepts and chancel. The arcade and chancel arches are notably without true columns; the arches rise geometrically from floor level. The chancel is raised by one step and the sanctuary by two steps, both with encaustic tiled floors. A moulded sanctuary rail on twisted stanchions with foliate brackets divides the sanctuary. The west gallery has a panelled front supported on tapering octagonal columns.

The pews are of pitch pine, with raking pews in the gallery. The semi-octagonal pulpit features facing panels of pitch pine; the lower part has three open quatrefoils and the upper part three trefoil-headed openings, with a corbelled moulded cornice, set on a moulded stone plinth. The font is a 13th-century circular font moved from the old church around 1860. It is circular with a repeated palmette pattern around the face, a flat rim with triple roll mould and double roll at the base, set on a modern octagonal plinth with broach stop chamfered angles to the column.

The chancel east window contains stained glass depicting 'Faith, Hope and Charity', a memorial to Florence George Henry Irby, 5th Baron of Porthamel, who died in 1897. The south transept window, 'Ascension', commemorates Anna Maria Evans (died 1929) and her husband Richard Evans, Vicar of the Parish.

A sandstone reliquary chest, moved from the old church, has a coped lid and moulded mullions. It now has a glass front and is locally reputed to hold the relics of St. Nidan.

The belfry is said to contain two bells moved from the old church: a 14th-century bell inscribed with +E:D:A:N in Lombardic capitals, and a 15th-century bell with the Gothic inscription THOMAS AP MEREDITH.