St Nicolas' Church

St Nicolas' Church, Market Place, Abingdon, OX14 3HG

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1048110
Date first listed:: 19-Jan-1951
List Entry Name:: St Nicolas' Church
Statutory Address:: St Nicolas' Church, Market Place, Abingdon, OX14 3HG

User submitted image — Uploaded by Oxfordshire Buildings Record This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

Not all listed places are appearing on this map. We are investigating this issue and will have a fix in place as soon as we can. Updated: 13 February 2025.

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Images of England Project

To view this image please use Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Edge.

Archive image, may not represent current condition of site.

Date:: 2001-07-30
Reference:: IOE01/03198/27
Rights:: © Dr David J Mazey. Source: Historic England Archive

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1048110
Date first listed:: 19-Jan-1951
List Entry Name:: St Nicolas' Church
Statutory Address 1:: St Nicolas' Church, Market Place, Abingdon, OX14 3HG

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: St Nicolas' Church, Market Place, Abingdon, OX14 3HG

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Oxfordshire
District:: Vale of White Horse (District Authority)
Parish:: Abingdon on Thames
National Grid Reference:: SU 49843 97082

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 31 January 2025 to update the name and address and reformat the text to current standards

583/1/10011

ABINGDON MARKET PLACE St Nicolas' Church

(Formerly listed as CHURCH OF ST NICHOLAS)

19-JAN-51

I

Church of late Norman and Perpendicular date, restored in 1881 by Edwin Dolby of Abingdon and London.

MATERIALS: Mainly rubblestone, some ashlar, red tiled roof.

PLAN: Chancel, nave, west tower, and on the north side a shallow C16 chapel and organ chamber and vestry of 1880-1.

EXTERIOR: Late Norman nave with W front with late Norman doorway with three orders of shafts flanked by blind arcading. In nave two N lancets and traces of a third; to the South (where parapet of 1881) two windows in the Decorated style. West tower of c.1470 built within the nave with stair turret on north side. Vestry and organ loft of 1880-1 against north side of chancel.

INTERIOR: Chancel separated from nave by broad probably C14 chancel arch. Sceened-off east vestry of 1953. Reset within This is a late C14 carved crucifixion. Late C19 choir stalls. Nave with kingpost roof of 1881. Benches also of 1880-1. Fixtures and fittings include a pulpit of 1628 reset at the south-east corner of the nave and a C15 font with broad stem and bowl with quatrefoils. Stubby C16 chapel on north side of east end of nave with reset memorial of 1684 to John and Jane Blacknall (both d.1625), and late C19 stalls and wallpaintings. Exceptionally tall and narrow tower arch with reset Creed and Lord's Prayer boards.

HISTORY: The church was apparently founded as a chapel for lay servants of Abingdon Abbey c.1170 to one side of the main gateway into the precinct. The south wall and chancel were rebuilt following a furious attack on the abbey by the townsfolk in 1327. The church saw considerable enrichment (new windows and tower) in the C14 and C15. There was an extensive restoration, notably of the interior, in 1880-1 under Edwin Dolby of Abingdon and London. Works at that time included demolishing the Two Brewers public house which had stood against the north side of the church; replacing the nave roof; replastering the walls; replacing the floors; re-opening blocked windows; building a vestry and organ chamber. After a fire in the chancel in 1953 there was some reordering of the east end of the church.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: The church of St. Nicholas is a complex and architecturally interesting church of the C12 and later whose history was intimately bound up with that of Abingdon Abbey. It stands in a prominent town-centre position in central Abingdon facing the Market Square and its Grade I-listed Town Hall and abutting the gateway which formerly gave access to the abbey precinct. While the core of the building is of the late C12 extensive improvement programmes were undertaken in the C14 and C15. It has good collections of fixtures and fittings and of monuments. Overall of outstanding special interest.

SOURCES: N. Pevsner, Berkshire (1966), 53-4; J. Sherwood, A Guide to the Churches of Oxfordshire (1989), 15; R.M. C. Barnes, The 1880 Restoration of St. Nicolas', Abingdon (1985) [leaflet]

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 250267
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Berkshire, (1966), 53-54
Sherwood, J , A Guide to the Churches of Oxfordshire, (1989), 15

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.