Tuesday 19th August 2014
The Church of St. Nicholas, Fisherton Delamere
Church Guide
The first recorded mention of the manor of Fisherton (meaning fisherman’s town) is in 1086, the connection with the de la Meres beginning in the 14th century. These two dates probably bracket the early history of the church. As can be seen in the wall to the east of the tower, there are traces of Norman work in the church. There are Norman responds below the chancel arch and the font comes from the same period. The chancel arch itself is 13th century, as, in its origin, is the chancel.
What is unusual about the church is its history since 1800. It was drawn, as were many Wiltshire churches, by the Rev. John Buckler in the early years of the century. As a result, we can see how careful subsequent restorers were to retain as much as possible of the look as well as the material of the mediaeval building. The most significant alteration externally was the replacement of the wooden belfry with the top section of the tower we now have. This change dates from the restoration of 1833, carried out by John Davis who had bought the manor and living from the Duke of Somerset in 1803. The nave seems to have been restored at this time, incorporating the Norman mouldings mentioned earlier and most of the old window. The ceiling of the nave and the west gallery will have been part of the 1833 work, which is commemorated on a plate set into the tower.
The second restoration was in 1862, at the expense of a younger John Davis, under the supervision of W. Hardwick of Warminster. The chancel reflects this period of work, lancet windows replacing the rather broader and later windows shown in Buckler; presumably an attempt to recreate the original design.
In 1912 Athelstan Riley (author of “Ye watchers and ye holy ones’) caused the architect. F.C. Eden, to design the screen which now separates nave and chancel. Eden also provided the west gallery with a new front and pews for the nave. His screen was intended to be painted but this was never done, chiefly because of its unpopularity with the parish who were at one stage ready to see it go to another church. While it cuts a small church in two in a way which must make worship difficult, to the visitor it is a work of great elegance which can be enjoyed for its own sake. In the middle of the 21st century it is likely to be admired at least as much as we now respect the old John Davis’ tower.
The pulpit is Jacobean and seems to have come from East Anglia at the time of Eden’s work. There are a number of monuments, the most moving being to two babies of Thomas and Joan Crockford. He was vicar 1613-34. There are four bells – a fifth having been removed to Wylye – two of them by James Burrough of Devizes, 1745. The Royal Arms dates from 1801-16.
In 1783 sixteen people were recorded as attending the three communion services a year. In 1851 there were eighty-five at the morning service and a hundred and two in the evening. By the end of the century numbers had dwindled and the community became much smaller. In 1982 the church was declared pastorally redundant and in 1985 it was vested in the Redundant Churches Fund.