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BOSTON TF3343SE FISHTOFT ROAD 716-1/16/277 (West side) 27/05/49 Parish Church of St Nicholas GV II* Parish church. C13, C14, C15, C17, C18, additions 1869-75 by Sir George Gilbert Scott. 1899 restoration of tower, 1933-5 chancel by LT Moore. MATERIALS: squared limestone rubble, ashlar, red brick, lead and plain tile roofs. PLAN: western tower, nave with clerestorey, aisles, chancel, north chapel, south vestry. EXTERIOR: tower of 3 stages, with large corner buttresses, double moulded plinth, chamfered string courses, battlemented parapet replaced in C18 brick, with crocketed ashlar corner pinnacles. Stair tower on south side. To the belfry stage on each side a C15 2-light louvred opening with cusped lights, hollow moulded surround and hood mould. The south and north sides have plain lower stages, and a simple 2-light C17 opening beneath the belfry stage. A sundial on the south side. The west side has C19 double doors in moulded surround with hood mould and above a C19 5-light window in Perpendicular style in hollow moulded late C14 surround. The north aisle has a continuous sill band, plain moulded parapet concealing a lead roof and 2-light C19 window in the west end. The exterior of the nave and aisles has been refaced in the Gilbert Scott restoration. The south side of the aisle has plain gabled buttresses between pairs of C19 trefoil-headed lancets with plain surrounds. The 2 windows at the west end are 2-light and in a decorated style. The north door is a simple low pointed arch. The nave clerestorey has a plain parapet with corbelled support, and 5 circular windows. The C19 vestry is low, with a moulded parapet and a 2-light and 3-light window to the north side and 4-light window in the east end, all in C16 style. The pointed door has a hoodmould. Set in the north wall is part of a C13 gravestone with a human head beneath a trefoil, and part of a stiff leaf capital. At the rear end of the nave is an ashlar octagonal stair turret. The chancel is in ashlar with a 2 and a 3-light window on the north side. In the east end is a 5-light lancet east window in thin C13 style. A stone at the base of the chancel records that it was destroyed in 1856 and restored in 1933. On the south side is a reused 3-light C17 window with cross mullion and cusped heads. The south chapel is in ashlar, and has a flat 3-light window. It is in line with the south aisle which is in square rubble and is similar to the north aisle. The clerestorey matches the north side. INTERIOR: late C13 6-bay nave arcades, with square piers with hollowed-out shafts in the 4 main directions, into which are set a slender shaft with stiff leaf capitals. Some of the shafts are in Purbeck marble. Circular abaci and bases on the north side, square bases on the south side. Double-moulded pointed arches, with roll-moulded outer moulding. The circular clerestorey windows are set above the spandrels. C19 roof to nave and aisles with plain exposed timbers. Tall continuously moulded late C14 tower arch, with 3 steps up to tower floor. Narrow door to tower stair in west wall of nave. C19/C20 arch to east end of aisles. Upper door to rood loft on north side and small piscina on north side of chancel respond. Broad pointed C19 chancel arch on C13 half round shafts on human head corbels. Chancel with plain arch to south chapel. Inner shafts to east window. Rood beam and crucifixion. FITTINGS: include font of 1901, octagonal with carved quatrefoils, by JO Scott. Tall elaborate wooden font cover, partly C17. Earlier font dated 1660 now used as communion table base. Octagonal Jacobean pulpit, with flat cut-out cockerels supporting the reading ledge. On a northern window sill are the remains of a stone crucifix. 2 commandment and 2 deed boards in the tower. STAINED GLASS: in north aisle of 1927 by Morris and Co. Stained glass in south aisle of 1896 by Swaine, Bourne and Co. The church is set by the bank of the River Witham, and is thought to predate the foundation of St Botolph's Church in Boston. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book. Listing NGR: TF3378943104

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