Notes on the Churches 



Friday, August 2nd. 



,The Church of S. Nicholas. North Bradley. 



The plan of this Church shows some variation from the usual 

 type. It has a clerestoried nave with north and south aisles and 

 chancel in the ordinary way, but the position of the chapels is 

 unusual — that on the north occupying the easternmost bay of the 

 arcade, stopping the aisle and forming a kind of transept ; whilst 

 the south chapel, besides covering the corresponding space to that 

 on the north, is carried on eastward against the wall of the chancel, 

 and has a second (though late) archway opening into it ; the result 

 of this arrangement is very pleasing. 



The nave arcade of three bays is apparently fourteenth century 

 work (although the re-facing of the stonework introduces some 

 doubt), and the south chapel is about the same date. 



A complete re-modelling of the Church — a frequent process at 

 this time — was commenced about eighty years later. First a 

 clerestory was added to the nave, the north chapel was built, then 

 the chancel, aisles and porch were re-built and the tower added at 

 the west end. 



The design of the north chapel is very remarkable — the founder's 

 tomb in the north wall is treated on the inside as a recessed bay, 

 and, with its separate diagonal buttresses and pinnacles and richly- 

 panelled plinth on the outside, makes a charming feature. The slab 

 has the incised effigy of Emma, mother of Archbishop Stafford, 

 dated 1446. The original oak roof exists (it is profusely orna- 

 mented with carving, though almost, if not entirely, without 

 heraldry), and the piscina remains in the respond of the arch. 



The south chapel, also, has the old roof, but it is more simple in 

 design than the last, There is no trace of niche or piscina here. 

 (A fine old chest with three locks stands in this aisle.) 



The chancel has its original windows in the side walls, but the 

 east window is new; the coeval sedilia are of plain character, with 

 square heads. The panelled archways communicating with the 

 eouth chapel from the chancel and south aisle were doubtless inserted 



