Church of St Nicholas

Details

GREAT BOOKHAM LOWER ROAD TQ 1354 NW & NE (north side) 13/89 & 14/89

7.9.51 Church of St Nicholas GV I

Parish church. C11 nave; C12 west tower completed in C16 or C17; early C12 south aisle mostly rebuilt in C15 and its 2-storey south porch then integrated with it; later C12 north aisle rebuilt in C19; chancel dated 1341. Mostly knapped flint, incorporating some Roman tiles and squared limestone, with 3-span roofs of red tiles and stone slates; upper stage of tower weather-boarded, and spire clad with shingles. The square west tower of 2 low stages has stout angle-buttresses faced with brick, a gabled stair-turret at the north-east corner, a restored Tudor-arched west doorway and 2-light west window, a stone slate roof to the 1st stage, the weather-boarded upper stage breaking through this, with 3 horizontal louvres in each side (and a clock-face below that on the south side), and a splay-footed spire with weathervane. Next to the tower on the south side is one bay of the early C12 south aisle, now gabled, with a lancet in its west side and a C19 window of 2 cusped lights in its south side, and attached to the right of this a half-gable which was formerly the staircase to the former 2- storey porch. The 4-bay south aisle (the 4th bay overlapping the chancel) has a 2-centred arched doorway in the 1st bay protected by a small C19 gabled porch, and three C15 3-light windows with cusped lights, cavetto-moulded surrounds, and depressed arched heads with hoodmoulds; at the west end, one segmental-headed window at ground floor and another at 1st floor level, each with 2 recessed cusped lights and moulded surround; and at the east end a large 2-centred arched 5-light window with restored Perpendicular tracery and hood mould. The chancel, which is mostly of squared limestone, has two C14 2-light windows with cusped tracery, and a 2-centred arched 3-light east window with reticulated tracery (restored in sandstone), all with hoodmoulds. On the north side the 1st bay of the nave has a blocked 2-centred arch of a former aisle arcade, with an inserted window, and the C19 aisle begins in the 2nd bay. Interior: 4-bay aisle arcades: the early C12 south arcade has simple semicircular arches on cylindrical piers with scalloped caps and square abaci; the later C12 north arcade has chamfered 2-centred arches on octagonal columns with scalloped caps (but the 1st bay blocked), and in the wall above the 1st and 3rd columns are small round-headed C11 windows with deeply splayed reveals, the 2nd of these with remains of medieval painting (which continues over the wall to the left). The remaining west bay of the original very narrow south aisle has a deeply-splayed west window; the corner between this and the enlarged south aisle has a blocked 2-centred arched doorway at ground floor, and another at 1st floor of the return side (formerly access to 1st floor of porch); the south aisle has chamfered beams (one with cusped diagonal bracing above), and brattished wallplates, and the chapel in its east bay has a fine cusped and ogee-headed piscina. The nave and chancel have wagon roofs. The tower has a double- chamfered 2-centred arch, and contains a massive braced timber frame supporting the belfry. The south side of the chancel has a large 2-centred arch to the chapel with shafts and 2 orders of moulding, the north side has C14 cusped windows of 1, 2, and 2 lights (first 2 blocked), and the east end has a stone tablet with inscription in Lombardic script recording the rebuilding of the chancel by John de Rutherwyke in 1341. C12 font with corner colonettes. Stained glass in east window, said to be C15 Flemish, from Costessy Hall in Norfolk. Numerous fine monuments, including: brasses on or close to the south pier of the chancel arch (John Barndale, 1481; Henry and Elizabeth Slyfield, 1598, with their ten children on a plaque below; Edmond Slyfield, 1590; Robert Shiers, 1668); in the north aisle, busts of Robert. Shiers (1668), Elizabeth his wife (1700) and George Shiers (1685), in a large open-pedimented aedicule with much fine carving; Col. Thomas Moore of Polesden (1735), as a reclining figure in Roman military uniform, with trophies above (by Thomas Carter sen.); and William Moore (1746), a relief on an obelisk, with weeping putti; at the west end of the north aisle, a pedimented aedicule dated 1744 commemorating various members of the Howard family of Effingham; in the south aisle, Cornet Francis Geary (killed in the American War of Independence, in 1776), with Britannia weeping over a bust and a relief depiction of the action; beneath this, a very long rectangular brass plate commemorating Lord Raglan (d.1855 at Sebastopol); and in the chancel, Elizabeth Andrews (1816), a Gothic tablet under a weeping willow in semi-relief which rises to the top of the wall.

Listing NGR: TQ1350454660

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

290480

Legacy System:

LBS

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