St Nicholas, Compton
St Nicholas, Compton
St Nicholas’s is a Grade I parish church on The Street, Compton, near Guildford, notable for its pre-Conquest tower and a rare intact two-storey Norman sanctuary.
- Location
- Compton, Surrey
- Country
- England
- County
- Surrey
- City / town
- Compton
- Address
- The Street, Compton, Surrey, GU3 1EG
- Postcode
- GU3 1EG
- Built
- Eleventh-century tower; twelfth-century chancel and nave enlargement c.1180
- Architect
- Henry Woodyer (restoration)
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Nicholas
- Diocese
- Guildford
- Parish
- Compton
- Grade
- I
- Style
- Anglo-Saxon and Romanesque, with a two-storey sanctuary
- Materials
- Mortar-rendered Bargate rubblestone with ashlar dressings; plain-tiled roofs and wood-shingled broach spire
- Grid reference
- SU 954 470
- Opening hours
- Open everyday.
- Access
- Accessible toilets nearby. Level access to the main areas
Overview
Historic England records an eleventh-century tower, twelfth-century Romanesque work to the chancel, enlargement of the nave about 1180, and later fourteenth-, fifteenth- and nineteenth-century alterations, restored by Henry Woodyer. The fabric is mortar-rendered Bargate rubblestone with ashlar dressings, a plain-tiled roof and a wood-shingled broach spire. The plan is a nave with pentice aisles, a double chancel and a square west tower with a south porch. The twelfth-century south door has chevron moulding.
The listing describes the two-storey sanctuary as vaulted below, with an upper chapel open to the chancel behind a late twelfth-century Romanesque timber guard rail — one of the earliest pieces of church woodwork in the country. The lower chamber has a quadripartite ribbed vault. Fittings include an early Norman font, Jacobean pulpit, altar rails and tower screen of about 1620, and a small thirteenth-century Virgin and Child roundel in the east wall of the lower chapel. The church is in the Diocese of Guildford and the parish of Compton.