Details
BULWICK MAIN STREET
SP9694 (North side)
12/18 Church of St. Nicholas
23/05/67
GV I
Church. C13 and C14 restored c.1863. Squared coursed limestone with ashlar
aisles, spire and tower. Lead and Collyweston slate roofs. Aisled nave, chancel,
west tower and south porch. South elevation of chancel of 2-window range of
2-light windows. Window to left has restored Y-tracery and window to right has
Cl9 tracery with quatrefoil. Priest door, between windows, with single chamfered
surround. Single-stage angle buttress to right hand corner. Gabled roof with C19
ashlar cornice, ashlar gable parapet and finial. 5-light east window with
intersecting tracery with cusping and quatrefoil circle. Flanking single stage
angle buttresses. North elevation of chancel has 2-light window, to right, with
renewed Y-tracery. c19 gabled vestry breaks forward to centre. Pair of C19
single-light windows, with tracery, in gable wall. Lateral stone stack at
intersection of vestry with chancel. South aisle of 4 bays. 2-window range of
3-light windows, to right, with 2-centred arch-heads and panel tracery. 2 stage
buttresses between windows and to right hand corner. Lean-to roof with plain
parapets. 3-light east window similar to south windows and 2-light west window
with quatrefoil circle. Porch, with shallow gabled roof, breaks forward to left
of centre. Outer doorway has hollowed and moulded 2-centred arch-head, with
semi-circular responds. Inner doorway has 2-centred arch-head with moulded
surround, 2-stage clasping buttresses, at corners, and ashlar gable parapet and
finial. Bay to left of porch is blank. North aisle of 3-window range of large
3-light windows with 2-centred arch-heads and panel tracery. Window to left
restored C19. North doorway, to right of centre, has 2-centred arch-head with
roll mouldings and 5 orders of shafts. 2-stage ashlar buttresses at corners and
between windows. Lean-to roof with plain ashlar parapet. 3-light east window
similar to the south windows and 2-light west window with geometrical tracery.
South nave clerestory is a 6-window range of 2-light square-head windows. North
nave clerestory is a 4-window range of 2-light square-head windows. Some
evidence of re-fanestration to window surrounds. Shallow gabled roof with ashlar
gable parapet and ball finial and ashlar parapet to south elevation.
Perpendicular west tower, of 4 stages, with moulded plinth. Shallow, 3-stage,
pilasters at corners. 2-light west window, in lower stage, has hollow reveals.
Doorway, with chamfered surround, in south face, quatrefoils set in square
surround, to north, south and west face of second stage, Pairs of tall, 2-light,
bell chamber openings, with transoms and cusping, to each face of upper stage.
0uatrefoil frieze with castellated parapet above. Gargoyles at corners. Set back
octagonal spire, with roll mouldings to angles. 2 tiers of lucarnes to alternate
faces. Interior: 3-bay nave arcade of double-chamfered arches each with one
octagonal pier and polygonal responds. The 2 eastern arches are in the
tranceptal position and are separated from the other 2 arcades by sections of
wall. The north arcade is early C13, with stiff leaf capitals, and the south
arcade is Decorated, with hollowed and moulded chamfers. Double-chamfered
chancel arch, with polygonal responds, and similar tower arch with semi -circular
responds. C19 roof structures, possibly incorporating some earlier timbers. Late
C13 piscina with attached triple sedilia, to right of altar. Detached shafts and
rocketed gables over arches; 2 with finials.C19 cusped-head recess to return
OF chancel arch, and arch-head piscina to south aisle. Retains of rood loft
stair in north aisle. Circular font on shaft. Bench ends carved by Reverend John
Holdich late Cl9. Stained glass: fragments of medieval glass to 2 south aisle
windows.Late C19 Stained glass to east window of chancel, all south aisle
windows and 2 north aisles windows. Monuments. Henry Fowkes, d.1612, and wife,
wall monument in south aisle with kneeling figures facing each other across a
prayer desk. Brass inscribed tablets in floor of chancel. Charles Nettleton.
d. 1718, inscribed tablet to right of altar. 3, plain, C18 inscribed tablets to
left of altar, Various C19 monuments to Tryon family of Bulwick Hall in north
and south aisles,
(Buildings of England: Northamptonshire: p130; RCHM: An Inventory of
Architectural Monuments in North Northamptonshire: p23; Holdich, Reverend Henry,
Rector of Bulwick, Diaries, 1861-81, ms. in parish records)
Listing NGR: SP9628394252
