Details
ST 46 NE BROCKLEY
6/43 CHURCH OF ST NICHOLAS
11.10.61
G.V. II*
Parish Church (Anglican). C12 altered C13 to, C15; altered c. 1820-30 for the
Smyth-Pigott family. West tower, nave, south porch; north and south chapels;
chancel and vestry. Coursed rubble with freestone dressings; lead roofs.
West tower of 3 stages with diagonal buttresses and an embattled parapet with
pinnacles; 2-light bell chamber openings with trefoil-headed lights; 3-light
west window and west door in moulded surround and hoodmould with lozenge stops;
projecting polygonal stair tower to north-east, embattled parapet. Nave has
3-light Perpendicular style windows with cusped heads to the tracery, square
hoodmould. South porch and chapel share a single pitched roof with carved demi-
figures as kneelers; 3-light windows with cusped ogee heads to the chapel;
double ogee moulded surround to outer doorway; blocked east window to chapel and
doorway with a brick ogee head. Chancel: 2 lancet windows, one with a cinquefoil
head; 2-light Perpendicular style east window with cusped ogee heads. The
north chapel has an early C19 4-light window. South doorway is early - mid C12
but probably re-cut: thin columns with square scalloped capitals and zigzag
moulded arch. Interior. Tower arch of 2 wave moulding. Double chamfered
arches to north and south chapels. Font, C12, circular bowl with small, blank
arches, fluted underside. Pulpit; in a highly elaborate Perpendicular style;
ashlar; blank panels of 2-lights with cusped heads; decorative base of foliage
and quatrefoil bands, panelled stem; 3 friezes with quatrefoils and foliage;
elaborate vaulted canopy with cusping and pinnacles. Behind the pulpit is a
moulded doorway with a 4-centred head. In the chancel immediately west of the
east windows are 2 square corbels, possibly for lenten purposes. Box pews;
Gothick to the chancel. Gothick fireplace to the south of Pigott chapel, with
pinnacles and Pigott arms. Reredos: in an elaborate Perpendicular style of
1820-30, quatrefoils, cusped ogee panels and canopy, pinnacles. Chandelier
brass, probably early - mid C18. Glass, particularly by W.R. Eginton c.1824-29
for J.H. Smyth - Pigott. Chancel: east window, S.S. Peter and Paul with the
Holy Spirit as a dove; north-east window, St. Nicholas and a kneeling child;
north-west window, 2 nimbed bishops; south-west window, an ecclesiastic
wearing a skull cap, probably Thomas Coward; south-east window, Edward the
Confessor, the head is by R. Bell. Pigott chapel: Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham
flank Edward I, heraldry above. Nave: Archbishop Chichele, William of Wykeham
and Thomas Mowbray with heraldry above. Monuments. Nave: 3 funeral hatchments
of Pigott family dated 1727, 1794 and 1816; Royal Arms of 1842. Pigott chapel:
Colonel John Pigott, probably c.1790 with dates of 1730, 1794 and later, coloured
marbles, inscribed plaque with an urn and the Pigott arms; J. Pigott, died 1811,
inscribed marble plaque, weeping woman and an urn; Wadham Pigott, died 1823, by
Chantrey; inscribed marble plaque, kneeling woman, draped urn on a pedestal and
the profiles of Pigott. (N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England : North Somerset
and Bristol, 1958. C. Woodforde, The Stained Glass of Somerset, 1250-1830,
1946).
Listing NGR: ST4658666979