Parish Church of St Nicholas

Parish Church of St Nicholas

This is a Grade II* listed parish church built in the Decorated Gothic style, constructed of coursed random rubble with limestone dressings and roofed in Westmoreland slate.

The church comprises a nave, chancel, south chapel, west tower, and north organ outshut. The tower is of square plan with gently battered walls of coursed rubble and substantial quoins, rising to a corbel table with embattled parapet. It stands on a plinth capped by a limestone stringcourse. The west doorway is a drop arch of ashlar blocks, above which is a 19th-century two-light square-headed window composed of cinquefoil-headed lights beneath ogee arches with a quatrefoil within the tracery junction above. The belfry is lit on four sides by two-light mullioned windows of 14th-century date with trefoiled heads beneath relieving arches.

The nave is lit on the south-west side by an early Perpendicular window with three cinquefoil lights beneath ogee arches, with traceried lights above in the form of blank shields with trefoils in the tracery; the hoodmould features carved heads as label stops. The north wall of the nave has two early windows comprising three cinquefoiled lights with panel tracery in the head with hood mould and carved heads as label stops. Two slender 19th-century buttresses strengthen the north wall.

The chancel is lit on the north elevation by a single square-headed two-light window with 19th-century trefoil heads, beneath a relieving arch. The east window contains three lights with hoodmould and rectangular label stops. At the junction of the chancel and nave on the north elevation is a 19th-century outshut housing the organ, featuring an external round-headed doorway and a two-light square-headed window on the east elevation composed of two trefoil-headed lights.

The substantial south porch has copings surmounted by a Celtic cross finial. The outer doorway is segmental and Perpendicular in form, with a niche above containing a sundial. The south doorway is also Perpendicular. The large south chapel extends from the south porch to the east elevation of the chancel. The south elevation of the chapel was rebuilt in 1803 and again in 1859 when the present windows were inserted. The chapel is lit by three windows of two trefoil-headed lights surmounted by tracery composing a single quatrefoil with hoodmould over. The east window of the chapel is 19th-century with three cinquefoiled lights and trefoil-form tracery above. The west window of the south chapel comprises three cinquefoil lights with three elongated quatrefoils above.

Interior

The chancel has a 19th-century barrel-vaulted roof with embattled wallplate. The chancel arch comprises a segmental pointed outer arch with an inner arch springing from the sides. The nave joins the south chapel with a pointed arch with continuous mouldings of 14th-century type springing from plain capitals on clustered shafts. A small doorway with pointed arch accesses the vestry. The south chapel is floored with ledger tombstones. The tower is linked to the nave by a segmental pointed outer arch with an inner arch springing directly from the walls; this arch is similar to that of the chancel but less acutely pointed.

The font is of 13th-century date, comprising a plain octagonal bowl set upon a modern octagonal plinth. The pulpit is 19th-century, constructed of coloured marble in high Gothic Revival style with a contemporary flight of marble steps.

Setting

The churchyard is bounded on four sides by a 1.5-metre-high rubblestone wall. To the south of the church is a timber lychgate with collar purlin roof, slate-clad, flanked by a pair of Gothic gates. The lychgate appears to be in the style of Seddon and Prichard and is contemporary with the 19th-century church restoration.