Parish Church of Saint Nicholas

Parish Church of Saint Nicholas

This Grade II* listed church consists of a nave with a north aisle (slightly shorter at its west end) and a lower chancel, dominated by a tall, tapering west tower of late 15th-century to 16th-century type with an embattled top and a low battered base below a stringcourse. A north-west stair-vice to the tower features small loops. The belfry lights are paired arches installed in 1884-86 with slated louvres, while paired lancets sit above a chamfered west door, also of late 19th-century date. The door itself is boarded with branched iron hinges.

The body of the church is constructed of rubble masonry with areas of rougher medieval stonework. The roofing has been changed from Pembrokeshire stone tiles to slate, with prominent iron finials to the gables and square-section cast-iron downpipes. The south side of the nave features a central shallow porch with a steep Bathstone gable, a moulded arched doorway, and a boarded door with iron branch hinges. Two-light flat-headed Bathstone windows flank the porch, installed in 1883-86 with trefoiled lights, and a two-stage buttress stands to the right.

The chancel is of a different structural period and includes a low plinth. It has a two-light flat-headed Bathstone window with ogee trefoil heads and a similarly detailed lancet to the right. The east elevation features twin gables with windows of the 1880s period. Within the chancel stands a large three-light window in Decorated style with elongated quatrefoils. The aisle contains a two-light flat-headed window with shouldered lights and a detached roundel above with an inset trefoil. The north elevation shows a railed enclosure to the left for steps to the crypt, a lancet window to the left, and a central buttress combined with a corbelled base of a truncated chimney. To the right is a broad triplet window of the 1880s with arched lights. A two-light window with plate tracery occupies the west end of the aisle, while the nave features a large trefoiled lancet to the right.

Interior

The interior displays joinery and roof work of 1884-86. The nave roof comprises six bays with arch-braced trusses, king-posts, and raked struts; the chancel roof is similarly detailed, while the east chapel of the aisle has a scissor-truss roof. Pews with blind trefoils decorate their ends. The two-bay arcade is of Bathstone with double-chamfered arches rising from quatrefoil-section piers with moulded capitals. A double-chamfered chancel arch features bulbous stops at springing-level, and a single arch connects the chancel to the aisle. A timber pulpit with open cusped panels stands in the nave. The chancel floor level was raised in the 19th century, cutting across a 17th-century Scourfield tomb. The aisle is now empty, subdivided at its east end. The tower arch is plainly plastered, while the base of the tower is barrel-vaulted with a Tudor-headed door to the stair.

The font is probably Norman, with a low scalloped square bowl, though much repaired and restored. A fine monument in the chancel commemorates William Scourfield (died 1621), consisting of a wall-tomb with an arcaded chest featuring fluted pilasters and an inscription on a slab. The upper stage comprises three bays divided by Ionic colonettes, with a central tablet bearing strapwork and a large heraldic shield above within a roundel with a greyhound crest. A monument to William Henry Scourfield, MP (died 1843), is a Greek-style tablet with a small coat of arms in a pediment, made by the Patent Works, Westminster.

Beneath the chancel lies a plain barrel-vaulted crypt, accessed via a narrow passage underneath the later aisle from outside. The crypt contains several lead coffins from 18th-century and 19th-century Scourfields, some displaying splendid coats of arms and velvet hangings. Notably, the crypt also contains the bones of a greyhound, said to have died of starvation in the crypt beneath the coffin of his master. Iron taper-holders are set into the walls at intervals. The west wall of the crypt appears to be an insertion, and may conceal additional tombs beyond.