Church of St Nicholas

Details

KEMERTON CP - SO 9436 - 9536 12/66 13/1 Church of St Nicholas 30-7-59 GV II*

Parish church. Early C13, altered and extended in C14 and C15, rebuilt (except for the west tower) from 1846 - 50, by R C Carpenter for Thomas Thorp, Archdeacon of Bristol. The tower was restored in 1879. Part lime- stone rubble with ashlar dressings, part limestone ashlar with plain tiled roofs. West tower, four-bay aisled nave with opposing doorways and south porch and two-bay chancel with south vestry. Decorated style. West tower: three stages with chamfered plinth and strings; two lower stages are early C18, belfry stage and diagonal west corner buttresses with offsets added late C15. Lower stage has a 2-light west window which has round-headed lights, a square head and a hoodmould with returns; above it is a small rectangular light and there are lancets in the north and south elevations. The second stage has a west clockface and 2-light windows (with round-headed lights) to the north and south. The belfry stage has 2-light louvred bell chamber openings with square heads and hoodmoulds, an embattled parapet with crocketted corner pinnacles-and a tall weathervane. Nave: aisles have separate gabled roofs, chamfered plinths and moulded eaves cornices enriched with grotesque beasts' heads and foliated detail. The north aisle has a diagonal west corner buttress with offsets and two other buttresses on its north side. The west end window and the three north windows are of two lights and have hoodmoulds with human head stops. The north doorway is of three moulded orders, has a hoodmould with foliated stops and an additional pointed moulding above. The large east end window is of three lights and similarly detailed to the rest. The south aisle has a diagonal corner buttress and three other buttresses on its south side and also a sill string. There is a cusped lancet with a hood- mould and beast head stops at the west end, three windows of three lights with human head stops to each hoodmould in the south elevation and a 5-light east window with returns to its hoodmould. The south porch is gabled and timber- framed on an ashlar base. It has scalloped bargeboards and a pointed archway flanked by cusped pointed open panels with a pair of similar 2-light panels each side. The panels were glazed in 1980. The south doorway within is of three orders, the central order of which is shafted and has a hoodmould with human head stops. The chancel has a gable-end parapet with a cross finial, a similar moulded eaves cornice to that of the aisles with a ballflower frieze beneath it, and the sill string is continued around it from the south aisle but at a lower level. There are diagonal east end buttresses with offsets and a central south buttress. The 4-light east window has a hoodmould with human head stops. At the western end of the north elevation is a 2-light window which has a hoodmould with returns. The south elevation has two similar windows, cusped lancet with human head stops to the hoodmould and also a pointed doorway. The north vestry is gabled and has a chamfered doorway and a cinque- foil light at its east end and a pair of cusped lancets in its east side eleva- tion. Interior: four-bay pointed nave arcades of two orders on columns of quatrefoil section. The chancel arch is similarly detailed but the tower arch is of simpler design. Nave has an arch-braced collar truss roof with large paired wind-braces and a ballflower frieze at wall-plate level. The chancel has a painted barrel roof and painted and gilded nookshafts to the east and south-east window. The reredos and piscina are also painted and the south-east window sill is stepped to form a sedilia. The octagonal stone font and timber pulpit are ornately carved, there is a large Parish chest in the south aisle and at the nave crossing hangs a corona by Hardman. Memorials: in the north wall of the chancel is a tomb recess with a marble mosaic memorial to Thomas Thorp, died 1877. Also early C19 memorial to Anna Parsons and numerous C18 and C19 ledger slabs in the north aisle. Glass: the chancel glass is by Willement; also some glass by Hardman in the north aisle. The rebuilding of the medieval church was highly controversial particularly as Thorp supported the Oxford Movement and established a high-church tradition at Kemerton. (VCH, Vol 8, p 218-9 (Glos); BoE, p 202).

Listing NGR: SO9458836806

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

148518

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Gloucester, (1969), 218-9
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Worcestershire, (1968), 202

End of official list entry

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