For those interested in church architecture or, more particularly, church architects this church is one of several in the area designed by Temple Lushington Moore (1856–1920) who was one of Victorian England's greatest church architects. In a career spanning five decades, he built more than forty churches.
The Temple Moore Trail gives lovers of architecture and beautiful countryside the chance to get to know Moore and the Moors. There are more than 20 Temple Moore buildings in the Trail, all in or near the North York Moors.
HISTORY
The church of ST. NICHOLAS consists of chancel 52 ft. 6 in. by 25 ft., with north vestry and organ chamber, nave 90 ft. by 25 ft. with north and south aisle, and west tower standing partly within the western bay of the nave and forming externally the entrance porch. The building has but little ancient work except in the chancel, nave arcades and tower, having been almost entirely rebuilt or restored at the close of the 18th century and again in 1903–8. The older parts just named are of late 15th or early 16th-century date and are of no great architectural interest, though the design of the tower with its lofty external arch and recessed entrance is unusual.
Graves writing about 1808 describes the building as 'a plain but neat edifice rather of a modern construction with some late repairs.' It had then but recently undergone a rather drastic reconstruction, probably about 1796, when the aisle walls appear to have been taken down and rebuilt and a new wide roof of low pitch erected over the entire body of the church. Some work was also apparently done about the chancel at this time, as the tops of the angle buttresses seem to be of that period and the arches of the nave arcade were mutilated in accordance with the then prevailing idea of restoration. The vestry and organ chamber were added in 1889, and the later reconstruction, which began in 1903, comprised the erection of new roofs to chancel, nave, and aisles, a new east window, new windows to both aisles, and a general restoration of the chancel, nave and tower.
Externally the chancel is divided into three bays by buttresses of three stages, and has a string-course at sill level and diagonal buttresses at the angles. There are three old windows each of three lights with perpendicular tracery on the south side, the westernmost, however, being a restoration. On the north are two similar windows, the one to the west now opening into the vestry. The windows are all of late 15th-century type, but the pointed heads are set within a flatter external arch with wide splayed jambs, and it is possible that the windows were brought from the priory buildings after the Dissolution and inserted in their present position, the external appearance scarcely suggesting their having been set up in this fashion along with the wall. The whole of the upper part of the east gable is new. The wide four-centred chancel arch is of two chamfered orders, both going down to the ground on the nave side, the inner dying into the wall towards the chancel. Above the arch towards the nave the line of the wide 18th-century roof still remains.
The nave is of six bays with north and south arcades of flat four-centred arches of two chamfered orders, without hood moulds, springing from slender octagonal piers with moulded capitals and bases. The detail is all poor and late in date and shows the effects of the 18th-century restoration. The north aisle is 14 ft. in width, but that on the south is only 12 ft. 6 in. and both have flat oak roofs.
The west window of the south aisle is the old east window reset, and is of three trefoiled lights with perpendicular tracery. It retains some fragments of mediaeval stained glass and some of 18th-century date. The aisle walls are divided externally into six bays by buttresses and finish with straight parapets.
The tower stands engaged to the extent of about 9 ft. and is open to the nave by a tall pointed arch of two chamfered orders, a feature which is repeated on the outside, the west doorway and window being recessed in line with the west wall of the nave. The external arch is of three hollow-chamfered orders with a boldly projecting hood mould and goes up the full height of the lower stage of the tower above the aisle walls, forming a not unimpressive western portal. The door and window are modern. The tower is of three stages marked by string-courses, the middle stage being very short with a clock dial towards the town on the west side. The belfry windows are tall pointed openings of two lights with quatrefoil in the head, transom, and hood mould. There is a vice in the middle of the south wall going up to the height of the belfry floor and entered from the end of the aisle. The tower finishes with an embattled parapet.
The stalls, pulpit, and all the fittings of the chancel and nave are modern. The font dates from 1872. The Chaloner pew at the east end of the south aisle is of plain deal without architectural treatment of any kind, and is entered through an external doorway on the south side. It measures 16 ft. 6 in. by 15 ft. 6 in. and is raised 2 ft. 3 in. above the floor of the church.
In the floor of the nave at the east end in front of the chancel arch is a brass with rhyming inscription to Susanna Pickering, who died in 1641, and at the west end of the south aisle is the Brus monument from the priory church. The occurrence of the Tudor rose at the north-east corner has suggested that the monument was erected by Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VII and wife of King James IV of Scotland. Other details also point to the first half of the 16th century as the date of its erection, the device of a cock standing upon a reel, which occurs in three places, being doubtless the rebus of James Cokerell, who was prior in 1519–34; and a shell, which occurs on the north side, probably has reference to the prior's patron saint (St. James).
In the tower is a ring of six bells cast by T. Mears of London in 1824.
The plate consists of a silver-gilt cup of 1604, tazza shaped, with cover surmounted by a triangular steeple, and the bowl and cover ornamented with a reticulated repoussé design; a cup of 1641 made by Robert Harrington of York, similar in design but plain, and bearing the inscription, 'Tho. Pickering, Henry Lyell, Tho. Proddy and Robert Browne churchwardens 1640'; a cup of 1652 inscribed, 'The guift of William Wicklife Cittizen of London To the Parish of Gisbrough in Yorkeshire 1652'; a paten of 1679, with the maker's mark W.H.; a paten of 1680, similar in design but with the mark T.A.; and a flagon of 1730.
The registers begin in 1661.
'Parishes: Guisborough', A History of the County of York North Riding: Volume 2 (1923), pp. 352-365.
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