St. Nicholas' Church in Bawtry - Part 2

 

The north elevation of the Church of St. Nicholas

After a very quick look at the interior of the Church of St. Nicholas, before a wedding was due to take place, I started my examination of the exterior by photographing the west elevation of the tower, which was originally built in the C14, fell down in 1670 and was rebuilt 1712-1713. 

 

The west elevation of the tower

 

In the Beautiful Britain travel guide for West Yorkshire, Joseph E. Morris mentions that the stone used for the tower is said to have come from Roche Abbey and also that it seems to contain some mediaeval fragments, with Pevsner thinking that the upper part has reused C14 masonry. 

 

The upper part of the west elevation of the tower

 

The writer of the church guide has presumably referred to the account of Morris, as it also mentions the use of Roche Abbey stone but the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland (CRSBI), which makes reference to the above sources, reports that no sculpted Romanesque masonry can be seen in the tower or the north wall of the nave. 

 

The north elevation of the tower

 

Immediately after the Dissolution in 1538, great quantities of stone were soon removed from Roche Abbey, which makes me wonder if the stone was actually from the Roche Abbey quarries. Without giving details about its final closure, the Stone in Archaeology Database states that the quarries resumed production in the post-mediaeval period and Sir Christopher Wren considered it to be of the highest quality. 

 

The north aisle

 

Moving round to the north elevation, which Pevsner described as a “farrago of disjointed elements” and Peter Ryder considered to be a puzzle, it was the stone used for the C20 refacing of the clerestory and the blocking of the c.1200 door that first caught my attention. I didn’t look at it closely, but it doesn’t look like any stone that I know and, with dolomitic limestone from the Cadeby Formation still available, it is a strange choice and I need to have another look at it. 

 

The north door

 

I didn’t notice these at the time, but the CRSBI report refers to the use of ironstone and Jurassic oolitic limestone in the fabric of the wall to the north aisle, which the renowned Yorkshire historian David Hey believes came up the River Idle as ballast. 

 

A waterleaf capital on the north door

 

Pausing briefly to look at a highly weathered waterleaf capital to a column that has been repaired quite inappropriate with sand and cement, I took a photograph of a very modern extension to the north aisle that encloses much of the original wall and obscures features mentioned by both Pevsner and Historic England (HE). 

 

A modern addition to the north aisle

 

At the east end of the aisle, there is another round headed door with headstops of monarchs that may or may not fit in with Pevsner’s mention of “arches of c.1400”. To my eye, it looks like it has been squeezed into the space between the quoins and a large Perpendicular Gothic style square headed window, to provide entry to the vestry. 

 

The door to the vestry

 

I didn’t take a close look at this part of the church, but there is another anomalous feature in the square headed window, which has had its lower part blocked up with stone and contains what HE describes as an image niche.

 

An image niche in the blocked up window