I have created this site because I think that St Nicholas Church is a remarkable and interesting building in many respects.
Also I don't believe that nearly enough is being done to promote this unique building to tourists. Italy has the Leaning Tower of Pisa; England has the Leaning Church of Gloucester. It is just as startling to stand inside it and see those huge pillars and other features leaning in different directions, wondering at the challenges that faced the builders. There is such a surge in interest in the mechanics behind history that I think tours would be popular, highlighting, as far as we know, the actual construction methods when all those huge stones were moved onto the site by animal power, all scaffolding was wooden poles and masons used tools we wouldn't give shed-space to (or would we?). The human effort (and cost) is mind boggling to us! Even the completion of Gaudi's extraordinary unfinished Cathedral, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona is being carried out by pouring concrete into moulds, applying the mosaic inner face, and then offering up the complete sections into position. Carving real stone (as his masons did) is too expensive! Anyway, not the subject for this website!
Although it became redundant in 1975, St Nicholas is still consecrated and occasionally hosts special church services.
When you are standing at the front, looking down the nave, you don't whether to stand square with the floor or lean to the right to be upright with respect to the pillars.
It was a pleasure to meet Juliet, who is the Custodian of St Nicholas. She has kindly distributed posters for our concerts (see below).
I was allowed to wander around with my camera and tripod and I'm sufficiently pleased with the resulting pictures to want to share them with others.
I'm not affiliated to the Church Conservation Trust or any other such body and any views expressed on this site are my own. If I'm misinformed on any material aspect please let me know and I will correct it forthwith. Similarly, any interesting snippets will be added. This is very much a personal journey around St Nicholas.
Most of the pictures have borders. If you click on these pictures you will see them full size. Use the Back button on your browser to return to the page.
Note that the pictures are downloaded in original large size so broadband access is advisable.
Like most sites, this one is always under construction as I replace my ignorance with knowledge. Because it's updated online there will never be a 'road-up' icon where you expected to see a page.
I apologise to all those who have been wondering where the actual stained glass and church nave photos are of which I write! I have been struggling with a semi-intelligent editor which has been second guessing what I don't want to do, and also picture size seems to be an issue. I've made the appropriate sacrifice in terms of writing brisk emails to support staff and I'm sufficiently embarrassed for it to start working. I think I've sorted it now! Please let me know if anything seems to be absent. You should see four stained glass pictures, and four pictures including a stereo pair and some doggerel verse in Groundfloor!
Hope you enjoy this site: Tom tomfs53@yahoo.co.uk
The Church is open during the summer months as shown on the notice below. (This is correct for 2007) Art exhibitions are frequently staged inside the Church.
The poster from when we sang here. Unfortunately we had rather a tiny audience, so we treated the performance as a rehearsal in nicer than normal surroundings (acoustically as well!) Our first aborted attempt at Karl Jenkins' Cantilena therefore went largely unnoticed! However we enjoyed ourselves. Singing unaccompanied, when the last chord ends, it echos back with great purity and we know that we finished in tune. Of course!
www.freewebs.com/newentchoralsoc
After our performance, Rob and Gill, suitably dressed, treated us to medieval entertainment. Gill played the pipe and tabor while Rob sat impassively operating his clog-dancing puppet which provided the percussion. Excellent!
The pictures were taken without flash and the puppet was moving!
Notice the fine paper mache pig in the background. It often has notices and artwork pinned to it. If it wasn't for the obvious female attributes this pig could be a Notice Boar!
Next stop was the Dick Whittington pub and then round to St Mary de Lode where Joe had a play on the restored organ which was, for many years, installed in St Nicholas Church.
OK, let's start the tour - while the sun is shining I think we should look at the Stained-Glass
