St Nicholas Church, Whiston

St Nicholas is in Early English style. It is constructed in coursed rubble sandstone with dressings in red sandstone, and it has slate roofs. Its plan consists of a four-bay nave with a clerestory and a west vestry, north and south aisles, a chancel with its roof at a lower level, a north organ chamber, and a south Lady Chapel. At the southwest is a tower that is almost detached from the church. The tower is in three stages, it has buttresses, and on the east wall is a stair turret with a conical roof. The bell openings have two lights and are paired, the parapet is plain, and the tower has a flat lead roof. The church is entered through a doorway in the south side of the tower. Most of the windows are lancets, many of which are in pairs with a roundel above. The west wall of the nave also has a rose window, and in the west wall of the vestry is a five-light straight-headed window. The east window has three lights.[2]

Inside the church the arcades between the nave and the aisles are carried on cylindrical piers with moulded capitals, and there is a two-bay arcade between the chancel and the chapel. The church is floored with encaustic tiles. There is a low stone chancel screen that is integrated with the drum pulpit. The choir stalls are decorated with fleur-de-lis finials and have carved arcades on the front. In the chancel is a painted reredos, and this is flanked by carved arcading and patterned wall tiles. The stained glass in the east window is by Clayton and Bell and depicts the Crucifixion. In the Lady Chapel the glass in its east window was designed by William Morris and depicts musicians in the form of angels. The glass in the rose window was designed by Edward Burne-Jones, and other windows were made by Morris & Co.[2] The first pipe organ in the church was made by T. C. Lewis and Company in 1873.[3] This was superseded in 1934 by an organ made by C. H. Walker.[4] The organ has since been increased in size; it has two manuals and 26 stops.[5]