Details
NORTH BRADLEY CHURCH LANE
ST 85 SE
(north side)
4/195 Church of St Nicholas
11.9.68
GV II*
Anglican parish church. C15, restored 1861 by T.H. Wyatt. Coursed
rubble stone and ashlar, Welsh slate roof with coped verges. Plan:
nave with aisles, chancel and north and south chapels, south porch
and west tower. Gabled C15 porch has diagonal buttresses, moulded
pointed doorway with sundial over inscribed TEMPUS FUGIT, Rawlings
of Bradford of Avon, 1777. C18 memorial tablet hung on west wall.
Restored south aisle has 3-light square-headed window with cusped
lights to left of porch, nave clerestory has three 2-light windows
with cusped lights. C15 south chapel has three large Tudor-arched
4-light Perpendicular windows, buttresses with offsets, planked
door to right and 5-light east window, battlemented parapet.
Chancel has C19 square-headed south window, diagonal buttresses and
C19 three-light east window in C14 style. Gabled north vestry has
square-headed cusped windows, Tudor-arched west door and stone
stack with offsets. North chapel has pair of fine C15 square-
headed windows to east and north, north bay breaks forward with
panels containing shields in quatrefoils, diagonal buttresses with
crocketed finials, cornice with gargoyles to battlemented parapet.
North aisle has two restored 2-light windows, three 2-light square-
headed windows to clerestory. Three-stage Perpendicular tower with
set-back buttresses and string courses, gilded circular clockface
to north side, west side has moulded pointed doorway with C19 doors
and square hoodmould, 3-light Perpendicular window over, middle
stage has arrowloop, bellstage has 3-light pointed Perpendicular
window with ornamental pierced louvres to all sides, polygonal
stair turret with pointed doorway up C19 stone steps on south east
corner, cornice and battlemented parapet.
Interior: Porch has stone benches, collar rafter roof. Nave has
C19 three-bay tie-beam roof with cusped vertical struts, plainer
trusses to half-bays. Tall pointed tower arch partly filled by C20
organ gallery. C19 three-bay arcades in C13 style with cylindrical
piers and pointed arches, lean-to C19 aisle roofs. North chapel, a
memorial to Emma, mother of Archbishop John Stafford of Canterbury
who died 1446, has fine moulded rib-panelled ceiling with
quatrefoils with carved floral designs, cusped pointed piscina on
south wall, coffin lid below north window with quatrefoil panels to
front, blind traceried window reveals, lid has incised figure of a
woman. South chapel, also C15, has moulded rib-panelled ceiling,
collection of C18 wall tablets; good rococo marble with egg and
dart mouldings and richly carved floral decoration to Henry Long
died 1727, attributed to Ford, Baroque marble with twisted columns
to cornice to urn, to William Trenchard died 1733. Wide Tudor-
arched opening between chancel and south chapel formerly housed
organ. Chancel has C19 moulded pointed chancel arch and scissor
rafter roof, 2-seat C19 sedilia in Perpendicular-arched recess.
Fittings: cast-iron and wooden C19 communion rail, C15-style stone
panelled reredos, polychrome tiled floor in chancel. C18 brass
candelabra in chancel and chapels. C17 polygonal carved wooden
pulpit reset on C19 stone plinth. Octagonal Perpendicular font
with symbols of the Passion in cusped panels, C19 font cover.
Charity board in north aisle records 1787 gift by Rachel Long.
Stained glass in south chancel window by T.R. Lamont in memory of
his wives Mary and Bessie, 1880s. Marble tablet over pulpit to Rev
Charles Daubeny died 1827, founder of Daubeny Almshouses (q.v.),
signed by Reeves of Bath.
N. Pevsner, The Buldings of England, Wiltshire, 1975)
Listing NGR: ST8546054903