Nuthall
St Patrick

Stonework

The vast bulk of the stone used is magnesian limestone with smaller quantities of sandstone and Lincolnshire limestone.

The magnesian limestone is almost certainly quarried in the immediate vicinity of the church. Several small ponds in the grounds of the adjacent former manor house site were formed from holes left by quarrying. The stone is very siliceous and varies in hue from a rich brown to a warm apricot colour. The fine-grained sandstone used would not have been from an immediate source. The rectory, older cottages and farm buildings (notably Home Farm and Town Farm) in the village centre, plus much of the local walling, are constructed from magnesian limestone. Natural unquarried stone forms the lower layers of walls, still very visible in stretches, on either side of the B600 Watnall Road running just east of the church. Inside the church, as well as on the exterior walls, the stonework is very worn in places, giving it a weathered, and in some places an almost a crumbling, consistency. The earliest remaining part of the church, the tower, has many very large sized blocks of magnesian limestone in its lower outer-wall section. Within the tower, neatly lined rows of thin, rough-dressed, magnesian limestone (surface rubble) shape the circular wall. On the later-built northern exterior church wall the magnesian limestone is less well weathered and possibly from a different quarry source. On the rebuilt/repaired east chancel wall, reused magnesian limestone has been used, giving the whole exterior stonework of the church a uniform look.

In additions and rebuilding, circa 1390 to 1400, sandstone was introduced to strengthen and when necessary to supplement the limestone. It was used as a facing-stone on the buttresses on the south wall of the nave and for the newly built south porch. Sandstone was used for the windows on the south wall of the nave when they were altered at this time. Although there are some large segments of magnesian limestone in the columns that support the north aisle arches, a fine-grained sandstone was used for most of the segments, as it was for the arches and decorative detail. Lincolnshire limestone was used in the 19th century in later alterations and additions to the chancel. Stonework round the vestry door and the arch into the organ loft are of Lincolnshire limestone as are the sills of the chancel windows. The stone is used again on the 19th century west window of the tower. The new vestry (1974/6) is a mixture of recycled fine and course grained sandstone.

The Victorian font is of good quality oolite limestone (possibly Ancaster hard white).

A section of incised, coarse sandstone grit, a good quality and costly stone, has been reused to form part of the buttress on the north tower wall. It has obviously been removed from a more prestigious position. Another piece was reused in the east wall of the chancel.

The roof is of slate.