Description

BEAUDESERT

SP1566 BEAUDESERT LANE
652-1/10/3 (North side)
05/04/67 Church of St Nicholas

GV I

Church. Mid C12 with C15 tower, some probably late C16
rebuilding and 1865 restoration by Thomas Garner.
MATERIALS: rubble and dressed limestone with ashlar dressings;
steeply pitched old tile roofs.
PLAN: 2-bay chancel, 3-bay nave and west tower.
EXTERIOR: chancel has coped gables with crosses, clasping
buttresses and string course; C12 round-headed east window,
with shafts, and mouldings including zig-zag to arch; flanking
very worn tablets, one with Tuscan pilasters and swan-neck
pediment with urn, the other recorded as being to Richard
Jago, d.1741, father of the poet Richard Jago; north side has
large off-set buttress between 2 C12 round-headed windows with
square-cut openings; break-back to west end; south side has
pilaster buttress with to left a 2-light late C13 window with
double-chamfered shaped arch, and to right an interrupted
string course and the jamb and part of arch to a C12 window.
Nave has north wall rebuilt inside former wall-line with 2
string courses, lower one reused C12 with some diapering,
upper one marks narrowing of wall; 2 C14 double-chamfered
straight-headed windows of 3 and 2 trefoil-headed lights to
east of large off-set buttress; plain round-headed C12
entrance has door with strap hinges; 2-light pointed window to
right end has renewed Decorated tracery; off-set buttress to
west end.
South side has high string course; re-set C12 entrance in
forward break has 4 orders with richly moulded arch and C19
door with enriched strap hinges; to west a high blocked
opening, to east two 2-light windows with renewed tracery.
3-stage west tower has rectangular plan; moulded plinth, to
north side broken by tall narrow infill, possibly to former
nave west wall, with cruder plinth to west and off-set
buttress abutting present nave west wall, with bracket to
angle, rectangular opening above; diagonal west buttresses;
C15 3-light transomed west window has worn hood with stops,
crockets and fleuron; string course above and small
trefoil-headed light with similar hood; bell-stage has louvred
bell-openings of 2 cinquefoil-headed lights with hoods as
above; very worn cornice and C19 or C20 crenellated parapet
and hipped roof; south side has image niche and stair lights
with hoods as above.
INTERIOR: chancel has C19 quadripartite vaulted roof on
original piers with scalloped or interlaced capitals, damaged
C13 piscina to east wall and aumbrys to north and south; deep
splays to north windows; restored C12 chancel arch of 3 orders
has richly moulded arch including much zig-zag; C19 half-arch
to north side reveals part covered by C16 wall.
Nave has 4-bay C16 or C17 roof with 4 tie-beam and collar
trusses with queen struts, braced collars and coupled rafters;
C19 brattished wall plates; double-chamfered tower arch has
capitals to inner chamfer and C19 timber screen; signs of
blocked C12 window to west end of south wall.
FITTINGS: mostly C19; chancel has altar rail on enriched iron
supports and some encaustic tiles; nave has some C15 or C16
bench ends with arms and round, flat, finials, other benches
have C19 copies, with numbered finials and candle standards;
plain C15 octagonal font with moulded underside; C19
Norman-style lectern.
STAINED GLASS: east window by Holland probably c1865; 2
chancel north windows dated 1852 or 1862; west window with
figures dated 1875; most other windows by Morris & Co c1864-5.
MONUMENTS: some C18 and C19 wall tablets to tower including
William Welch, d.1777, black sarcophagus-shaped tablet in
white setting with coloured marble to apron, fluted pilasters,
cornice and swan-neck pediment with central urn and outer
gadrooned urns; William Ellis, d.1848, Norman-style
round-headed tablet.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Warwickshire: Harmondsworth:
1966-: 88-9; Victoria County History: Styles P: Victoria
History of the County of Warwickshire: 1945-: 45-9; Shell
Guides: Hickman D: Warwickshire: London: 1979-: 37).

Listing NGR: SP1529466042

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17528447

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)