St Nicholas Church, Chiswick

St Nicholas Church, Chiswick is a Grade II* listed Anglican church in Church Street, Chiswick, London, near the River Thames.[1] The oldest part of Chiswick developed as a village around the church from c. 1181.[2] The tower was built at some time between 1416 and 1435.

St Nicholas Church, Chiswick
The Parish Church of Saint Nicholas
St Nicholas Church, Chiswick
51.4860°N 0.2506°W / 51.4860; -0.2506
LocationChurch Street,
Chiswick, London
CountryEngland
DenominationChurch of England
Websitewww.stnicholaschiswick.org
History
StatusParish church
Architecture
Functional statusActive
Administration
ParishSt Nicholas with St Mary Magdalene, Chiswick
DeaneryHounslow
ArchdeaconryMiddlesex
DioceseLondon
Clergy
Vicar(s)Simon Brandes
Listed Building – Grade II*
Designated11 July 1951
Reference no.1189405

The current church dates from 1882–84, when most of the building except the tower was demolished and rebuilt at the expense of the brewer Henry Smith of the nearby Fuller, Smith and Turner brewery. Several monuments survive, mainly in the tower.

History
Stone altar screen below the east window

There has been a church on the Chiswick site since at least 1181 in Norman times.[2][3] The church was formally visited and an inventory made at "the unusually early date of 1252":[4]

Ornamenta inventa apud Chesewith die Sanctorum Johannis et Pauli Anno Domini Mo. CCo. Lo. secundo.[4] (Ornaments found at Chiswick on the day of Saints John and Paul, [26 June] 1252 A.D.)

This first inventory lists "a good and sufficient missal sent there from the treasury of St Paul's"; two graduals; a badly bound tropary; an old lectionary; an anthem book; a psalter but not the expected manual. Valuables included a small silver chalice; a red velvet chasuble; two vestments; three corporals; five altar cloths; an arras cloth; an old chrismatory; two brass and two tin candlesticks; and a font without a lock. The chancel roof needed repairing, and the church was at the time not dedicated. Visitations were repeated in 1297 and 1458.[5]

Architecture
Brass plate commemorating the rebuilding of the church, paid for by the brewer Henry Smith, churchwarden, 1884

The current church dates from 1882–84, when it was rebuilt to a design by the architect John Loughborough Pearson, except for the west tower which was built for William Bordall (vicar 1416–1435). Because of the small distance between the tower and the road at Church Street, Pearson made the nave short but wide, so it is nearly square in plan. The Duke of Devonshire gave £1,000 for the rebuilding, but most of the cost was paid for by Henry Smith of the nearby Griffin Brewery company, Fuller, Smith & Turner.[3] The church is built of courses of squared Kentish ragstone masonry in the Perpendicular style. It has a stone coping with a copper roof.[1]

Inside the church, surviving 15th-century features include the tall archway to the west tower and the hoodmould over the window above the west door.[1]

Monuments

Inside the church
Richard Taylor memorial 1698

Among the monuments in the church are:[1][6]

  • Ralph Wenwood, d. 1799, wall tablet in swag surround
  • Charlotte Seymour, Duchess of Somerset, d. 1773, wall tablet and urn. She was the second wife of Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset
  • Sir Thomas Chaloner, d. 1615,[3] and his two wives, d. 1603 and 1615, heraldic achievement over baldachino, stone curtains held open by figures on sides; kneeling figures of Sir Thomas and his wife
  • Mary Litcott, d. 1599, brass
  • Thomas Bentley, d. 1780, representation of sarcophagus by Thomas Scheemakers; Bentley was Josiah Wedgwood's business partner[7]
  • Richard Taylor,[8] d. 1698, urn on tassellated swag surround held by cherubs
  • Richard Tayler, d. 1716, Corinthian aedicule, heraldic cartouche, statues of Father Time and Angel of Death
  • Charles Holland the actor, d. 1769, bust on obelisk, epitaph by Daniel Garrick
  • James Howard, d. 1669, flaming urn on Ionic aedicule, inscription panel
  • Thomas Plucknett, d. 1721, broken pediment and Ionic aedicule
  • John Taylor, d. 1729, open pediment, heraldic achievement in tympanum over Ionic aedicule
  • Thomas Tomkins, d. 1816, tablet with medallion portrait
  • Charles Barnevett, d. 1695, pedimented wall tablet
  • John Beckwith, d. 1815, rectangular fluted tablet

In the churchyard and burial ground
Ugo Foscolo Memorial

Among the monuments in the churchyard and the adjacent burial ground are:[3][9]

Events

Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein married Betty Carver in the church on 27 July 1927.[13]

  • Tower
  • Early English Purbeck Marble Foliated Cross Gravemarker 1340
  • Thomas Plucknett memorial 1721
  • John Taylor memorial 1729
  • Richard Tayler memorial 1716
  • James Howard memorial 1669
  • Mary Litcott memorial 1599
  • William Hogarth memorial 1764
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See also

References
  1. Historic England. "Church Of St Nicholas And Attached Walls (1189405)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  2. Clegg, 1995, p. 17.
  3. Clegg, 1995. pp. 103–104
  4. Phillimore 1897. p. 98.
  5. Phillimore 1897. pp. 98–114.
  6. Phillimore 1897. pp. 2–16
  7. "Thomas Scheemakers". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 2014.
  8. "Access to Archives: London Metropolitan Archives: Taylor Family". The National Archives. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  9. "The Churchyard". St Nicholas Church Chiswick. Retrieved 14 November 2014.
  10. Riall, Lucy (2007). Garibaldi : invention of a hero. Yale University Press. p. 4.
  11. Historic England. "Tombstone to Sir Percy Harris, Bart, St Nicholas Churchyard (1096142)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
  12. Anon (24 January 1913). "The Hitch Memorial Fund. First list of subscriptions". The Chiswick Times.
  13. Clegg, 1995. p. 38.

Sources
  • Clegg, Gillian (1995). Chiswick Past. Historical Publications. ISBN 0-94866-733-8.
  • Phillimore, W.P.W.; Whitear, W.H., eds. (1897). Historical Collections Relating to Chiswick. 36 Essex Street, Strand, London: Phillimore & Co.CS1 maint: location (link)
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