NHER 5549 (Building record) - St Nicholas' Chapel or The Fishermen's Chapel

Church listed Grade I, railings Grade II (NHER 62690) and tomb Grade II (NHER 62691). Churchyard now recorded separately as NHER 62689.

This is one of the sixty five Norfolk churches selected for Jenkins', Englands Thousand Best Churches (S6).
See photographs of a brass taken in 1967 (HES film collection Film AH frames 26-31).
See press cuttings (S10), (S11), (S12), (S13), (S14), (S15), (S16) and (S17) in file.
E. Rose (NLA), 1 May 2002 [1], updated E. Rose (NLA), 29 June 2004 and D. Gurney (NLA), 17 February 2006.

December 1951. Listed Grade I.
Chapel of St Nicholas
Listing Description:
Chapel of Ease to St Margaret's church, founded 1146 by Bishop Turbus. Rebuilt c. 1200, south-west tower c1220, all rebuilt (except tower) 1371-1419. Steeple 1500 (donation). Steeple collapsed 1741, rebuilt 1869 by Gilbert Scott. Ashlar tower and clerestory, aisles brick, rendered and scored to imitate ashlar and with ashlar dressings. Lead roofs. Nave. continuous chancel and continuous aisles, plus tower. 2-stage tower with 2-light plate tracery windows to south and west. 2-light plate tracery belfry windows. Octagonal broached and leaded spire. Huge 11 light Perpendicular west window with a west doorway stepped up into it. Flanking stepped buttresses with statuary niches. North aisle window of 5 lights, with unusual Perpendicular tracery. 12-bay north aisle, 10-bay south aisle, each bay separated by a stepped buttress: 3-light Perpendicular windows under segmental arches. 2 late C14 doorways in north side, one to south side. 9-light chancel east window. Clerestories of 12 bays, that to south reduced to 11 on account of south-west tower: 3-light Perpendicular windows again. 2-storey south porch. Multiple rolled arched entrance below a screen of Perpendicular niches in 2 tiers. 3-light side windows to ground floor, 2-light above. Stair turret in north-west corner. Gabled roof.
INTERIOR. North face of tower with 2 lancets, east face with 3 lancets above low doorway. 11-bay arcade with moulded arches on lozenge piers. 11-bay roof of alternating hammer beam and tie beam trusses. The hammers have carved angels, the ties have queen posts and arched braces dropping to wall posts on stone corbels. Each wall post has an ogeed canopied niche right and left. One moulded butt purlin and ridge piece. Font is 1902 copy of that given by Bishop Harsnett in 1627: strapwork. C14 polygonal holy water stoup at west end of north aisle: encircled quatrefoils to bowl and one small figure. Next to tower is ledger slab in memory of Robinson Cruso, died 1773. Wall monument in south aisle (east end) to Thomas Greene, 1675. Large kneeling figures of Sir Thomas and wife flanked by 2 Corinthian columns supporting a segmental pediment; predella with 5 daughters and 4 sons; apron bears inscription panel. In east wall of south aisle wall monument to Richard Clarke, 1602. Alabaster. Architectural surround contains an altar on which kneel Richard and wife, figures of offspring peeping out behind them. Under altar is recumbent figure of Richard's first wife. Inscription in predella. In east wall of north aisle wall monument to Thomas Snelling, 1623. Architectural surround with kneeling figures of Thomas and wife. In predella are figures of 2 sons, one daughter and a swaddled infant. Inscription in apron. Immediately in front is marble monument to Sir Benjamin Keene, 1757 by Robert Adam. Square plinth decorated with festoons and inscription. On plinth is a round bowl and cover with 4 pilaster divisions. Alternate panels have high relief images and serpentine inverted gadrooning. Images are of a profile head (east side) and a shipping scene with figure of Britannia (Keene was ambassador to Spain) on west side. Late C15 brass eagle lectern.
Information from (S4).
H. Hamilton (HES), 08 September 2017.

July 1977. Field Observation.
Visual assessment of the church (primarily exterior) with a brief inspection of the interior.
See HER record cards (S20) for notes compiled from visit and distillation of Pevsner's description (S21).
H. Hamilton (HES), 05 September 2017.

October 1989. Building Survey.
Detailed survey of the building including documentary research compiled by the Council for the Care of Churches.
See report (S1) for further details.
H. Hamilton (HES), 08 September 2017.

February 1994. Groundworks.
A culvert was unearthed at the northwest corner of the chapel.
See correspondence (S28) and photographs (S29).
H. Hamilton (HES), 05 September 2017.

1995. Excavation at the Corn Exchange.
Excavations at the Corn Exchange revealed a bell pit thought most likely to have been used for casting a bell for St Nicholas' Chapel. See NHER 12919 for details.
A. Cattermole (King's Lynn UAD), 12 February 2020.

June 1997. Church renovations.
Building works revealed a window hidden in the North wall, next to the North East doorway (Bay 19).
Part of the former churchyard wall may also have been revealed within True's Yard (NHER 24426).
See correspondence and location sketches (S23).
H. Hamilton (HES), 05 September 2017.

October 2000. Churchyard renovations.
A new opening was formed within the southern boundary wall of the churchyard.
See correspondence and location sketch plans (S24) and architectural plans (S8).
H. Hamilton (HES), 05 September 2017.

April 2002. Building survey.
Founded 1146 as chapel-of-ease. Tower 13th century. Most of present church from about 1419.
Very fine selection of monuments; 17th century font, not a replica as suggested by the list description (S4). Important furnishings. Anchorite's cell recorded.
Building report (S2) and additional annotations and additions in file.
E. Rose (NLA).

2001-2013. Programme of renovations.
Plans were put in place in 2001 for repair of the Chancel floor and conservation of the west doors of the Nave (S25). However, this did not completely come to fruition until 2013 (S19).
The west front, of unique design and including what may be the oldest surviving medieval painted wooded doors in England, was the primary focus of this work.
See 2001 correspondence (S25), 2004 notes on structural problems (S5), 2005 photographs (S26) and correspondence (S27), and press cuttings (S18) and (S19).
D. Gurney (NLA), 11 December 2006. Updated M. Langham-Lopez (HES), 10 January 2013.
Amended H. Hamilton (HES), 05 September 2017.

August 2014-July 2015. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of various groundworks undertaken as part of a lengthy programme of conservation and improvement works at St Nicholas Chapel.
The external works exposed the substantial footings of the 13th-century tower, which were shown to comprise imported limestone and ballast cobbles. A series of scaffold pits excavated against the north and south walls exposed brick footings beneath the level of the visible stone ashlar work. The presence of this brickwork is not surprising as the walls of the chapel themselves are reputed to make extensive use of brick.
The internal groundworks included the lowering of the floor level within the south-west tower and the removal of pews and subsequent reinstatement of an area of floor at the west end of the nave.
The works inside the tower revealed the footings of a doorway in the west wall of the south aisle that is partly blocked by the early 13th-century tower and therefore recognised as a surviving element of the original, early 13th-century chapel. A well-worn, chamfered string course was exposed below the doorway threshold, beneath which the stonework was roughly coursed and partially made from limestone rubble. Interestingly this masonry was bonded over a pre-existing structure. This earlier phase of masonry displayed evidence of severe movement and distortion and may therefore represent a short-lived phase of work associated with an aborted construction phase - after which the formation level was raised and the extant doorway constructed. It is however clear that subsequent phases of construction were also affected by subsidence.
The removal of the concrete floor at the base of the tower revealed a dense, sandy silt that whilst sterile was nevertheless clearly a redeposited make-up deposit, lying above a clay silt deposit containing limestone chips and other probable construction debris. A number of river cobbles similar to those observed in the tower footings were impressed into the upper surface of an underlying clay silt deposit that was otherwise clean and homogenous. The tower footings were also exposed by these internal excavations, being shown to be somewhat misaligned to the masonry walls constructed above.
The re-flooring works in the nave exposed a number of deposits, the deepest and earliest of which was a probable redeposited beach sand that contained construction debris and had probably been lain down during the construction of the present nave during the early 15th century. A well-worn late medieval glazed floor tile was found that had mortar over its surface, suggesting that the original medieval floor had probably been covered up at some point during 19th or early 20th century before being finally lifted and discarded. Two pairs of parallel dwarf walls were also exposed, one close to the north wall and the other occupying a corresponding position next to the south wall. These were built from reused medieval bricks and may have been associated with aisle galleries, although their positions do not appear to correspond with the joist sockets for former gallery structures that have previously been identified.
See report (S3) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 20 April 2018.