Church of St Nicholas

Details

ISLIP HIGH STREET SP5214 (West side) 12/77 Church of St. Nicholas 07/12/66 GV I Church. Late C12 (and possibly C11), C14 and C15; chancel 1680 by Richard Varney, mason, for Dr. Robert South; restored 1861 by E.G. Bruton. Limestone ashlar, and rubble with ashlar dressings; Stonesfield-slate and artificial stone-slate roofs. Aisled nave, chancel, north-east vestry, south porch and west tower. Chancel, of squared coursed rubble, now has C19 windows in Geometrical Decorated style: a 3-light east window and 2-light windows to north and south, all with foliage stops to the hood moulds. The hipped-roofed vestry to north incorporates a small lancet which may be medieval. The narrow south aisle with a steep double-pitched roof, has a 2-light Decorated east window and 2 similar windows to south. The porch, with arcaded side windows, is C19 but shelters the C14 south doorway which has continuous mouldings. The west gable wall of the aisle contains a small C11/C12 window. The broader north aisle, also with a steep double-pitched roof, has 4 large 3-light windows with good geometrical tracery, mostly renewed; the blocked north doorway has continuous wave mouldings either side of a three-quarter hollow moulding. The fine ashlar 3-stage C15 tower, with diagonal buttresses and crenellated parapet has a 3-light 4-centre arched west window, with intersecting tracery and a wide casement moulding, above a Tudor-arched door with quatrefoils in the spandrels and a label mould; the top stage has large 2-light bell-chamber openings with Perpendicular tracery and transoms; the crocketted corner pinnacles have panelled sides. Interior: C14 chancel arch and 3-bay south arcade with octagonal piers and foliage corbels to responds. Late C12 Transitional north arcade has pointed chamfered arches, but has square scalloped and leaf-volute capitals on round piers, and the responds with engaged corner shafts. Tall C15 tower arch. Small C14 piscina in south aisle. Coupled-rafter nave roof is probably C13/C14; butt-purlin roof in south aisle, with straight windbraces and some stop-chamfers, may be C17; butt-purlin roof of north aisle, of slighter scantling, is dated 1716. C19 polychrome glazed tiles in sanctuary. Fittings include a C15 font panelled with quatrefoils, a C17 communion table in the north aisle, and panelled and carved choir stalls which probably incorporate some work of 1680. C19 wooden reredos has carved wooden figures beneath elaborate canopies. Monuments include wall memorials to Henry Norrys (died 1637) with a brass in a marble surround, and to Edward Dewe (died 1656) and Luke Chapham (died 1676), both with side scrolls, broken pediments and cartouches of arms. Stained glass: east window 1861 by Warrington; west window 1862 by Powell; south chancel windows 1904 by Powell Ltd. The church was given to Westminster Abbey in 1065 by Edward the Confessor, and the narrow south aisle may represent the nave of his church, the west wall with its window and high gable possibly remaining from this building. (V.C.H.: Oxfordshire, Vol.VI, p.216-7; Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, p.664).

Listing NGR: SP5265214093

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

243315

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Salzman, L F, The Victoria History of the County of Oxford, (1959), 216-7
Pevsner, N, Sherwood, J, The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, (1974), 664

End of official list entry

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