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St Nicolas Church, Guildford

St Nicolas' is an Anglican parish church in Guildford, England. It is a Grade II* listed building.

Location and parish
Location St Nicolas’ church (spelt ‘Nicholas’ until the early 20th century) is on the left bank of the River Wey, at the bottom of Guildford High Street, which extends across the river via the now pedestrianised Town Bridge. The present church, consecrated in 1876, is the third church on the site. It is one of the three ancient parish churches of the town. The other two have combined in their ministry, Holy Trinity and St Mary's, Parish The parish is one of the three ancient parishes of Guildford borough, together with Holy Trinity and St Mary's,. Also within the parish on St Catherine's Hill is the ruined Grade I listed St Catherine’s Chapel dating c. 1300, an enigmatic building with royal and pilgrimage connections. ==Literary connections ==
Literary connections
Hymn and carol writers and composers John Mason Neale wrote and/or composed: Good King Wenceslas, O happy band of pilgrims: Deacon (junior clergy). John Samuel Bewley Monsell wrote and/or composed Fight the good fight and O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: Rector (parish priest). Secular works Writer P.G. Wodehouse was baptised with the waters of the font. Son of the rector John Manship (1612-1689) was Samuel Manship, a London publisher of theology and philosophy. ==Architecture==
Architecture
The building is of cut stone and some mortar-infused rubblestone and is listed in the middle category of statutory listing, Grade II* chiefly for its ashlar-cut, bi-colour stone tower with quoining, its internal arches, pillars and its many decorative apertures by Teulon and Ewan Christian. The west end has a straight gable end excepting tall, shallow outside buttresses in light-stone relief. It has matching pointed arch windows consisting of tall close lancet lights and a small roundel above. A five-light trefoil window is above. The church is built from the south and west Surrey yellow ironstone-sandstone (Bargate stone) with 10 consecutive round windows, grouped in pairs, towards the simple string course eave. Above immediately is guttering of equal height before the ascent of a long hipped slate roof surmounted by a simple yellow stone cross on the west end. Its north lower, long vestry and side aisle with west-facing main door is between the height of the main building culminating in a transept matching the width of the square porch tower to which it joins and running equally to the south where it forms the vestry. A square belfry tower with flagpole surmount the chancel in lighter stone than all but the northern additions. The north transept gable end is embellished by a large plate-tracery, three-light-plus-roundel window on a sill and under a hood moulding. The chancel itself, facing east, is apsidal (hemi-spherical as to the upper part and rounded as to the lower) with vaulting. It has a marble floor and mosaics. ==References==
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