Description

GREAT BOOKHAM LOWER ROAD
TQ 1354 NW & NE (north side)
13/89 & 14/89

7.9.51 Church of St Nicholas

GV I

Parish church. C11 nave; C12 west tower completed in C16 or C17; early C12
south aisle mostly rebuilt in C15 and its 2-storey south porch then integrated
with it; later C12 north aisle rebuilt in C19; chancel dated 1341. Mostly knapped
flint, incorporating some Roman tiles and squared limestone, with 3-span roofs of
red tiles and stone slates; upper stage of tower weather-boarded, and spire clad
with shingles. The square west tower of 2 low stages has stout angle-buttresses
faced with brick, a gabled stair-turret at the north-east corner, a restored
Tudor-arched west doorway and 2-light west window, a stone slate roof to the
1st stage, the weather-boarded upper stage breaking through this, with 3
horizontal louvres in each side (and a clock-face below that on the south side),
and a splay-footed spire with weathervane. Next to the tower on the south side
is one bay of the early C12 south aisle, now gabled, with a lancet in its west
side and a C19 window of 2 cusped lights in its south side, and attached to the
right of this a half-gable which was formerly the staircase to the former 2-
storey porch. The 4-bay south aisle (the 4th bay overlapping the chancel) has a
2-centred arched doorway in the 1st bay protected by a small C19 gabled porch,
and three C15 3-light windows with cusped lights, cavetto-moulded surrounds, and
depressed arched heads with hoodmoulds; at the west end, one segmental-headed
window at ground floor and another at 1st floor level, each with 2 recessed
cusped lights and moulded surround; and at the east end a large 2-centred
arched 5-light window with restored Perpendicular tracery and hood mould. The
chancel, which is mostly of squared limestone, has two C14 2-light windows with
cusped tracery, and a 2-centred arched 3-light east window with reticulated
tracery (restored in sandstone), all with hoodmoulds. On the north side the 1st
bay of the nave has a blocked 2-centred arch of a former aisle arcade, with an
inserted window, and the C19 aisle begins in the 2nd bay.
Interior: 4-bay aisle arcades: the early C12 south arcade has simple semicircular
arches on cylindrical piers with scalloped caps and square abaci; the later C12
north arcade has chamfered 2-centred arches on octagonal columns with
scalloped caps (but the 1st bay blocked), and in the wall above the 1st and 3rd
columns are small round-headed C11 windows with deeply splayed reveals, the
2nd of these with remains of medieval painting (which continues over the wall to
the left). The remaining west bay of the original very narrow south aisle has a
deeply-splayed west window; the corner between this and the enlarged south aisle
has a blocked 2-centred arched doorway at ground floor, and another at 1st floor
of the return side (formerly access to 1st floor of porch); the south aisle has
chamfered beams (one with cusped diagonal bracing above), and brattished
wallplates, and the chapel in its east bay has a fine cusped and ogee-headed
piscina. The nave and chancel have wagon roofs. The tower has a double-
chamfered 2-centred arch, and contains a massive braced timber frame
supporting the belfry. The south side of the chancel has a large 2-centred arch
to the chapel with shafts and 2 orders of moulding, the north side has C14
cusped windows of 1, 2, and 2 lights (first 2 blocked), and the east end has a
stone tablet with inscription in Lombardic script recording the rebuilding of the
chancel by John de Rutherwyke in 1341. C12 font with corner colonettes. Stained
glass in east window, said to be C15 Flemish, from Costessy Hall in Norfolk.
Numerous fine monuments, including: brasses on or close to the south pier of the
chancel arch (John Barndale, 1481; Henry and Elizabeth Slyfield, 1598, with their
ten children on a plaque below; Edmond Slyfield, 1590; Robert Shiers, 1668); in
the north aisle, busts of Robert. Shiers (1668), Elizabeth his wife (1700) and
George Shiers (1685), in a large open-pedimented aedicule with much fine
carving; Col. Thomas Moore of Polesden (1735), as a reclining figure in Roman
military uniform, with trophies above (by Thomas Carter sen.); and William
Moore (1746), a relief on an obelisk, with weeping putti; at the west end of the
north aisle, a pedimented aedicule dated 1744 commemorating various members
of the Howard family of Effingham; in the south aisle, Cornet Francis Geary
(killed in the American War of Independence, in 1776), with Britannia weeping
over a bust and a relief depiction of the action; beneath this, a very long
rectangular brass plate commemorating Lord Raglan (d.1855 at Sebastopol); and
in the chancel, Elizabeth Andrews (1816), a Gothic tablet under a weeping willow
in semi-relief which rises to the top of the wall.

Listing NGR: TQ1350454660

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Church of St Nicolas, Great Bookham official website
• Wikidata Q17527595

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)