Hockerton St Nicholas

Official Listing Description

SK 75 NW

4/105

11.8.61

HOCKERTON

CHURCH LANE (east side)

Church of St Nicholas

Grade II*

Parish church. C12, C13, C14, restored 1876 by Hodgson Fowler. Ashlar. Plain tile roofs with decorative ridge. Chancel, nave and porch with coped gables and single decorative ridge crosses. Tower, nave, south porch and chancel. Embattled diagonally buttressed tower of 2 stages with bands, upper stage C14, set on a chamfered plinth with moulded band over. Single worn gargoyle on each side. West side has a moulded arched doorway with hood mould and decorative label stops. Above is a single restored C14 arched 3 light window with cusped panel tracery, hood mould and human head label stops. Above is a single small blocked trefoil arched opening. There are 4 arched C14 bell chamber openings each with 2 arched and cusped lights. The west side has a single and the south side 2 rectangular lights. The north nave is set on a shallow chamfered plinth, the western most side with a moulded band continuing from the tower. Blocked moulded arched doorway with hood mould and label stops. Above and to the right is a single pointed arched light. To the left is a single C14 3 light window with arched and cusped lights under a flat arch with hood mould and human head label stops. The chancel is set on a chamfered plinth and has in the north wall a blocked arched doorway with hood mould and to the left a single C14 window with 3 arched and cusped lights under a flat arch. The east chancel has a single C14 window with 3 arched and cusped lights, mouchettes, flat arch, hood mould and label stops over is a flush relieving arch. To the right is a carved C14 grotesque head. The buttressed south chancel has a single restored window with 3 arched and cusped lights and tracery under a flat arch. The dressed coursed rubble south nave is set on a low ashlar plinth and is buttressed to the right. Single restored C14 window with 3 arched and cusped lights, tracery and flat arch. To the left is a single small chamfered arched C12 light. The porch is set on a chamfered plinth and has an arched entrance with hood mould and impost bands. The side walls each have single small arched lights. Inner Caernarvon arched doorway with stoup in the east wall and decorative wooden bench end inscribed “O M 1599”. To the left of the porch is a single C13 lancet with hood mould. Interior. Double chamfered tower arch, chamfering to arch only. Unmoulded C12 chancel arch. The south chancel has an arched recess with hood mould and label stops, and inner worn decoratively carved C14 niche, probably the remains of an Easter Sepulchre. Restored C16 alms box. Some bench ends C16 decorated with carved indents with C19 replicas, font and remaining furniture C19. In the north chancel is an oval marble plaque to John Augustine Finch, 1780. The memorial to John Whetham, 1781, has an oval inscription plaque with fluted brackets supporting an entablature surmunted by a decorative urn with shroud draped over. The apron has a decorative shield. In the tower is a board detailing “Donation To The Poor of Hockerton” dated 1832.