St Nicholas (medieval)

Stenigot

Old Church, Stenigot, Lincolnshire

Ruined parish church

The most isolated church in the county, the so-called “Old Church” is not even on the OS Landranger maps. It is located in the middle of a vast sheep pasture three quarters of a mile NE of the village. The nave is in ruins, a pile of rubble amidst a gnarly, romantic copse. The only part of the church standing is the short chancel. The chancel arch, which is now embedded in the W wall, is Romanesque as is the unmoulded S window.

Brighton

St Nicholas, Brighton, Sussex

Parish church

The church of St Nicholas stands on a hill overlooking the Old Town of Brighton. It has a W tower, an aisled nave with 5-bay arcades and an aisled chancel flanked by chapels. It is essentially a late 14thc. building, but was largely rebuilt in 1852-54.

Loxley

St Nicholas, Loxley, Warwickshire

Parish church

Mainly 18thc. and consisting of nave, chancel and a 13thc. W tower on S side of church. There is Herringbone work inside chancel N wall and outside chancel S wall, and a plain, flattened round arch but these may be 18thc. (Pevsner). Romanesque sculpture is found on the pillar piscina.

South Ockendon

St Nicholas, South Ockendon, Essex

Parish church

South Ockendon is an ancient parish and now a large village in the Unitary Authority of Thurrock, 4 miles N of the Dartford Crossing and a similar distance SE of Upminster, immediately outside the M25. The villlage extends for 2 miles along the B186 that runs N from West Thurrock towards Brentwood, and the church is at the northen end of the village along with South Ockendon Hall and the railway station. St Nicholas's has a chancel with a N chapel and a S vestry; an aisled nave; the 15thc N aisle with a porch, and the 19thc S aisle with a rood stair turret at its E end. The W tower is round and 13thc (the neo-Norman upper storey by Armstrong). The external appearance is mostly due to the restoration of 1865-66 by Richard Armstrong. It is of knapped flint with Reigate stone dressings. The only Romanesque feature is the reset S doorway.

Britwell Salome

St Nicholas, Britwell Salome, Oxfordshire

Parish church

Britwell Salome is a small South Oxfordshire village about 4.5 miles NE of Wallingford. The church, which was rebuilt in 1867 by Charles Buckeridge, is of flint and stone construction. It consists of chancel, nave, vestry, S porch and western bellcote. Its predecessor had a Romanesque chancel arch and a S nave doorway of the same period. The latter was reused in the 1867 church.

Tackley

St Nicholas, Tackley, Oxfordshire

Parish church

This cruciform church of limestone rubble stands high above the west bank of the Cherwell, 8 miles north of Oxford. It now comprises the chancel, built up due to the sloping ground, central tower, N and S transepts, and a clerestoried nave with a S aisle. The N and S walls of the nave may be partly pre-Conquest. Although it was probably originally aisleless, on the N side remain two blocked arches, visible both on the outside and inside walls. These may represent either porticus arches, or arches of a N arcade built c. 1120. Whatever their nature, the extensions were demolished in the early C13th. A similar situation may have pertained on the S side because the S arcade and aisle were also built or rebuilt at the time of the demolition, when also the chancel was extended eastwards and the nave westwards. The N nave doorway of c. 1120 is thought to have been reset within the NW blocked nave arch also at the same time. The arch of another early Romanesque doorway, decorated with roll mouldings, is now set in the E wall of the churchyard. On the nave interior there are small round-headed arches, one each on N and S walls, just below the clerestorey windows. The W bay of the chancel on the S side still retains a C12th pilaster buttress. A further Romanesque detail is the three beakheads reset on the S face of the second stage of the tower.

Biddestone

St Nicholas, Biddestone, Wiltshire

Parish church

The church has a 12thc. font, south door and two windows in the chancel. However, most of the church dates from the 13th and 14thc. and there is a distinctive, late medieval bell-turret.

Walcot

St Nicholas, Walcot, Lincolnshire

Parish church

Set next to perhaps the most stunning churchyard tree in the county, this church, with its steepled W tower, three-bay nave with N and S aisles, and chancel is primarily from the first half of the 14thc. Pevsner notes a restoration done in 1907. Romanesque elements consist of six reset fragments in the S porch, reused fragments in parts of the 13thc N arcade, possibly the font, and part of the chancel arch.

Little Langford

St Nicholas, Little Langford, Wiltshire

Parish church

The church is built of flint and stone in a chequerboard pattern, and consists of a chancel and a nave with a large S transept. During the 19th-century restoration, the 12th-century door was incorporated into the S side of the nave. Some of the stones were reused from the old church.

Islip

St Nicholas, Islip, Oxfordshire

Parish church

Islip lies 5 miles NE of Oxford, on the N bank of the river Ray. According to tradition, Islip was the birthplace of King Edward the Confessor in 1004, who is reputed to have been baptised in the wooden Saxon church that pre-dated the current one, N of the present site. The church of St Nicholas was built in the late 12thc and largely rebuilt in the 14thc. It now comprises a chancel, a nave with S and N aisles, a W tower and a S porch. There was a drastic restoration by E. Bruton in 1861. The transitional-style N nave arcade survives with two squat round piers, and a single round-headed window is reset at the W end of the S aisle. The battle of Islip bridge fought during the Civil War (1645) caused severe damages to the building. Substantial restoration work was carried out in 1680. It was almost entirely rebuilt in 1861.