The large village of Wickham is situated on the W bank of the River Meon in the S of Hampshire, NW of Portsmouth.

The church of St Nicholas stands on elevated ground – possibly an Anglo-Saxon burial ground – to the E of the settlement and the river. Heavily restored in 1861-62 and 1872-77, it is built of flint with ashlar dressings (except for the S transept, which is of red brick), and has red tile roofs.

The building comprises a chancel with a large S chapel, spacious N and S transepts, an unaisled nave and a W tower. The W tower has a gallery stage, a wooden belfry and a shingled broach spire. Built in its entirety in 1861-62, it incorporates a reused 12thc doorway.

On the N side of the church is a detached brown brick church room of 1974 by Potter & Hare. It is of one storey, rectangular, with an octagonal roof, reportedly designed to complement the spire.

The two pre-Conquest manors of Wickham were unified by Hugh de Port, who was granted the property by William I. No church was mentioned in 1086. According to the guidebook, ‘documents from the episcopate of Henry de Blois (1129-1171) show that the church was dedicated to St. Nicholas and granted parochial rights and status’ (Retallack 2022, 14). The mid-12thc W doorway is the earliest datable feature of the building.

The 12thc church probably comprised a simple nave and chancel. As a result of extensive 19thc rebuilding, the original dates of the S chapel (variously a chapel or vestry; since 1961 the Lady Chapel) and the N and S transepts are unclear. The S transept has been variously dated to the 17thc (Retallack 2022, 15) and to 1803 (VCH 1908, 235). The latter date is supported by a guide of 1801, cited by Retallack, which mentions just one addition on the S side of the church, presumably the S chapel (Retallack 2022, 15). The same source confirms that the 12thc doorway (though described as ‘Saxon’) was located at the W end of the nave.

Two views of the church pre-dating restoration work of 1861-62 show that a timber bell turret with a pyramidal roof occupied the W end of the nave, and that the W doorway was protected by a porch (Retallack 2022, 15-16). Another early view, a watercolour by R. H. C. Ubsdell dated 1841, shows a vestry with a chimney stack on the N side of the chancel.

The work of 1861-62, by the London architects F. & H. Francis, has been described as ‘virtual rebuilding’ (HE List Description). It was certainly extensive, but did not amount to a complete rebuilding. The bell turret was replaced by a W tower and the W doorway was relocated. The N transept was rebuilt (Builder, 12 April 1862, 265). The chapel or vestry on the S side of the chancel was largely reworked. At a later date, probably in the 1870s, an organ chamber was built on its W side, abutting the S transept. The organ was bought in 1880 (Hampshire Telegraph, 6 January 1933, 12).

The church room of 1974 was designed by Potter & Hare, who had refurbished the interior in the 1960s (Pevsner & Lloyd 1967, 652).

A Statement of Significance for St Nicholas’s church, drafted in 2005, interprets the centaur on the N capital of the W doorway as ‘a sculptured badge of King Stephen’ (quoted in Retallack 2022, 16). Although Stephen’s badge was Sagittarius, any direct connection with him is dubious. On the W doorway of St Mary, Portchester, Sagittarius was paired with Pisces, and was thus used consciously as a zodiac symbol. This was probably also the case at Wickham.

According to Retallack, ‘a Norman font disappeared during the Victorian ‘restoration’, allegedly to be used as an animal feeding trough’ (Retallack 2022, 17).