Church of St Nicholas, Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk

Description

615/2/1

CHURCH PLAIN
CHURCH OF ST NICHOLAS

19-JAN-51

GV
II*

Perpendicular in origin, but badly damaged in a fire in 1879 and almost wholly rebuilt to designs of Herbert Green. Reopened in 1883. S porch, organ and seating completed in 1887. NW vestry added 1966.

MATERIALS:
Quaternary and Quarry flint with Lincolnshire Limestone and Bath stone dressings. Lead and slate roofs.

PLAN:
Chancel with N and S chapels, nave with N and S aisles, N rood stair turret, NW vestry, S porch, and W tower.

EXTERIOR
A large town church, wholly Perpendicular in style and with some evidence for the pre-fire form of the building. The tall W tower with offset buttresses is largely C15. The embattled parapet has blind, panelled tracery, and the W doorway has rows of stylised flowers, mostly original. The clerestoried nave, aisles and chancel have no parapets. Enormous E window. The windows are all C15 in style and have vertical tracery in a range of patterns. The chancel windows have external jamb shafts, the bases apparently C15, the rest wholly renewed. Fine S porch in a C15 style with an embattled parapet similar to that on the tower. Embattled N rood stair turret. Changes in the masonry on the N side are probably the result of post-fire rebuilding, and suggest that the lower parts of the walls survived largely intact. Low NW vestry of 1966.

INTERIOR
The interior is wholly Perpendicular in style, but was almost entirely rebuilt in the C19. The nave arcades have arches of two orders with many fine mouldings on piers with four attached shafts with polygonal, moulded capitals and high, moulded bases. Hood moulds with large carved angels holding shields above each pier, forming a termination for shafts descending from the roof. The chancel arch is similar, and the tower arch has an inner order like the nave arcades and a continuous outer order. The single arches to the chancel chapels are simpler. The chancel windows have shafted rere-arches, the bases of the shafts apparently C15, and there is a fine late C15 or early C16 door in the chancel, the door original and the surround, with a vine scroll, possibly also original and it is very red and appears fire damaged.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES
Only a few fittings survived the fire. There are a few loose architectural fragments, notably several bases. Small brass plate above chancel N door to Thomas Bradley, rector 1446-99. Excellent late C15 or early C16 door in chancel, with blind tracery, slightly charred in places. Very fine and large C16 brass eagle lectern. Chest dated 1637. Otherwise the fittings are late C19. Perpendicular style font, octagonal with quatrefoils on the bowl and nodding ogees on the stem. Nave benches have carved, shaped ends and good poppy heads in a range of patterns. C19 encaustic tiles with geometric patterns in chancel.

Very good C19 roofs. Chancel roof is arch braced with carved angels on the posts, at the junctions with the purlins and the ridge, and on the wall plates. The wall plates and purlins are embattled, and there is open tracery in the spandrel between the braces and the ridge. The nave roof is similar, with alternate trusses descending on shafts between the clerestory windows. S aisle roof is lean-to with moulded principals and open arched braces with short posts on stone corbels. The N aisle roof is also lean-to, but has short, curved braces with carved spandrels on moulded corbels, and additional braces forming four-centred arches against the walls.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES
Some good tomb slabs in the churchyard, some with seafaring motifs including ships, others with cherubs and other carved motifs.

HISTORY
Wells-next-the-Sea is mentioned several times in the Domesday book of 1086, by which time it was clearly already a substantial place. The church was not mentioned, although this does not mean that one did not exist by that date. In 1202 Ramsey abbey obtained a charter allowing it to expand the port, but the church stands a little way outside the early C13 planned town by the harbour, and was certainly already well established by the early C13. There is no surviving early fabric. The W tower is C15, and other surviving fragments, including the fine late C15 or early C16 door preserved inside and loose bits of moulded stone, suggest that the late medieval church was substantial and well detailed. Following the devastating fire of 1879, it was almost wholly rebuilt by Herbert Green, the diocesan architect. The extent to which Green's post-fire restoration replicated what was there is not clear, but loose fragments in the church, which are more complex in their detailing than Green's work, suggest that he considerably simplified the architecture in many places. The cost of the work was £7,000 with an additional £2,000 spent in 1883 on the organ, the pews and completing the S porch. The NW vestry was added in 1966.

SOURCES
Buildings of England: Norfolk I: Norwich and North-East (2002), 711

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
The church of St Nicholas, Wells next the Sea, is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

* Some remains of the late medieval parish church, including surviving C15 W tower of considerable height.
Rebuilt handsomely to designs by Herbert Green, the diocesan architect, after a fire in 1879, including good C19 roofs in late medieval style.
* Some remaining important medieval fittings, including a fine late C15 or early C16 door in chancel and C16 pulpit.
* Good C19 nave benches with poppy heads and shaped arms.

External Links

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Church of St Nicholas

A Grade II* Listed Building in Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk

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