Church of St Nicholas
CHURCH OF ST NICHOLAS, RECTORY LANE
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1361223
- Date first listed:
- 25-Jul-1952
- List Entry Name:
- Church of St Nicholas
- Statutory Address:
- CHURCH OF ST NICHOLAS, RECTORY LANE
Location
Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.
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 |
Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2001-06-30
- Reference:
- IOE01/05910/05
- Rights:
- © Mrs Pamela Weston. Source: Historic England Archive
Local Heritage Hub
Unlock and explore hidden histories, aerial photography, and listed buildings and places for every county, district, city and major town across England.
Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1361223
- Date first listed:
- 25-Jul-1952
- List Entry Name:
- Church of St Nicholas
- Statutory Address 1:
- CHURCH OF ST NICHOLAS, RECTORY LANE
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
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.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
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.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- CHURCH OF ST NICHOLAS, RECTORY LANE
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Leicestershire
- District:
- Harborough (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- SP 74031 86948
Details
MARKET HARBOROUGH
911/4/106 RECTORY LANE 25-JUL-52 LITTLE BOWDEN (West side) CHURCH OF ST NICHOLAS
GV II Anglican church. C13 and C14. Restored 1900-1901 by Bodley, who added the W end bellcote. S porch with memorial date of 1927, N with a date of 1928. Stone rubble with freestone dressings and lead roofs, tiled roof to chancel. The W end bellcote is ashlar masonry and there is extensive ashlar patching to the chancel, presumably by Bodley. Plan of nave, chancel, N aisle with NE chapel, SW vestry and N and S porches.
EXTERIOR: The nave, N aisle and vestry roofs are almost flat. Chancel with a 3-light Geometric Decorated E window with flat faces to the mullions and main moulding members, probably by Bodley. Similar 2-light S window. 2-square-headed clerestory windows to N side and one similar high-set window to the S side of the nave which is of 1901 as is the other large nave window below. Shallow gabled S porch to the nave with a segmental-headed arch to the outer doorway. The NE chapel has a large medieval Decorated E window with reticulated tracery one buttress, a large lancet to the E and Perpendicular square-headed 3-light windows flanking the N porch, the eastern of the two windows uncusped. The deep SW vestry of 1901 has a 2-light square-headed C19 S window with trefoil-headed lights. The W wall of the nave shows the scar of a previous steeper roofline. The Bodley bellcote descends to the ground and has a single tall round-headed W window and a pair of gabled bell openings, side-by-side, with ogee arches.
INTERIOR: Plastered and painted. Moulded chancel arch on shafts. 3-bay C14 N arcade with double-chamfered arches on quatrefoil piers with finely-moulded capitals. C19 roofs. The nave roof is Perpendicular nave roof, very shallow-pitched. The trusses are tie beam with short king posts with short curved braces onto moulded stone corbels. The nave roof is painted red, black and white with busy chevrons on the rafters. Boarded wagon roof to the chancel with slender transverse ribs. The ribs and wallplate are painted red, black and gold, the boarding is white. The aisle roof has moulded rafters and a purlin and curved braces and is painted white. There is a tie beam across the chancel with gilded cresting. The chancel has c. early C20 black and white paving and a timber panelled reredos with a memorial date of 1924. Good early C20 choir stalls with a crested canopied dado on the S side. The NE chapel has a moulded tomb recess. Polygonal timber pulpit , the sides decorated with quatrefoils and a low frieze of blind tracery. C19 font with circular bowl on a quatrefoil stem with moulded capital. Nave benches have square-headed ends with sunk panels. Many C19 wall plaques. Late C19 and early C20 stained glass.
Sources
Pevsner, Leicestershire and Rutland, 1984 edn., 311-312.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 189738
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 21-Jun-2026 at 08:37:14.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.