St Nicholas

St Nicholas is a Grade II* Church in Wales parish church in the village of St Nicholas, Vale of Glamorgan, reached from the north side of the A48 and set in a low-walled churchyard.

Overview

Cadw records a parish church of fourteenth-century origin comprising chancel, nave, west tower, south porch and south chapel. The fabric is Decorated Gothic in coursed random rubble with limestone dressings and Westmorland slate roofs. The square west tower has battered coursed-rubble walls, substantial quoins, a corbel table and an embattled parapet; its belfry openings are fourteenth-century two-light mullioned windows with trefoiled heads. The north wall of the nave retains two early three-light windows with cinquefoiled lights and panel tracery; the south-west nave window is early Perpendicular. The substantial south porch has a Perpendicular outer doorway with a sundial in a niche above.

The church was heavily restored and extensively modified to designs by Prichard and Seddon of Cardiff, with Messrs Parry of Llandaff as contractors; the restoration was completed in 1860. The south chapel was rebuilt in 1803 and again in 1859, when the present windows were inserted. Inside, Cadw notes a thirteenth-century octagonal font on a later plinth, a high Gothic Revival coloured-marble pulpit, a C19 barrel-vaulted chancel roof, and a C14-type pointed arch between nave and south chapel. A timber lychgate south of the church is in the style of Seddon and Prichard and appears contemporary with the Victorian restoration.

Further Information

• Cadw listed building 13636
• Coflein NPRN 406397
• Parish church website