ST. NICHOLAS'S
The ancient parish of St. Nicholas, 16 acres in areaand the smallest of the old borough parishes, lay inthe west of the town. The civil parish became mergedin the civil parish of Leicester in 1896. (fn. 1) The boundaries of the present ecclesiastical parish, largelythose of the ancient parish, were altered owing to theconstruction of the Great Central Railway at the endof the 19th century. From the junction with St. Martin's parish just south of Free School Lane, the boundary of the ancient parish runs south-east throughhouses to the junction of Thornton Lane and HarveyLane. From there it goes west to reach ApplegateStreet about half-way to the West Bridge. Theboundary then runs along the line of the river to apoint almost due west of the remains of Friars' Causeway. From there it runs to the east along the line ofthat street to about the top of Great Central Street,then south-east to Blue Boar Lane and south-west toits starting-point. (fn. 2)
The main thoroughfare of the parish is St. Nicholas Street, which joins High Street and ApplegateStreet and leads to the West Bridge. St. NicholasStreet was known in the Middle Ages as Hotgate,from the common ovens of the borough which werein the locality. (fn. 3) Hotgate is first mentioned in 1297and the name was Latinized as calidus vicus. (fn. 4) In the17th century the old name was still current, althoughthe common ovens ceased to be used, (fn. 5) but by theearly 19th century it had become known as St.Nicholas Street. (fn. 6) Applegate Street still preserves itsmedieval name, although it was sometimes known inthe past as Shambles Lane. (fn. 7) There was a St. Nicholas Shambles at least as early as the end of the 14thcentury, when it brought in a yearly rent of £3 5s.to the borough. (fn. 8) Although in the 16th century theLeicester butchers wished to confine their businessto the Saturday Shambles, in the Saturday MarketPlace, their petition about the matter was evidentlydisregarded. (fn. 9) A new shambles was built in 1681–2. (fn. 10) Throsby refers to the street as Shambles Street, butit seems to have been generally known as ApplegateStreet at the beginning of the 19th century. (fn. 11)
Blue Boar Lane joins High Cross Street and GreatCentral Street. It was known in the Middle Agesas Guildhall Lane or Mayor's Hall Lane, from thepresence at its western end of the second of Leicester'scommon halls. (fn. 12) This stood at the southern cornerof the street, opposite the east end of St. Nicholas'sChurch. The borough purchased a building on thissite for a common hall in 1251, (fn. 13) and it remained inthe possession of the town until at least 1694, whenthe old Mayor's Hall still stood. It is not known whenthe hall was demolished. The present name of thestreet is derived from the Blue Boar Inn which untildemolished in 1836 stood on the south side at thejunction with High Cross Street. (fn. 14) The 'Blue Boar'was one of the best-known inns in Leicester duringthe 16th century, and is traditionally the house inwhich Richard III passed the night before the battleof Bosworth in 1485. (fn. 15) Jewry Wall Street is namedfrom the Roman remains so called. It is not knownwhen the name originated, but in its more probableform, Jury Wall, it was in use at the end of the 17thcentury. (fn. 16) The explanation of the name which waswidely accepted in the 18th century and after, thatthis area of the town was the Jews' quarter, (fn. 17) seemshighly improbable. Of Talbot Lane little remains, asit was largely cut into by the construction of theGreat Central Railway in 1899. It was probablynamed from a piece of ground called the Talbot,which also gave its name to the Talbot Inn, which wasprobably standing at the end of the 15th century. (fn. 18) No. 10 Talbot Lane dates from the 18th centuryand has an interesting staircase. Jester House, nextdoor, is of the early 19th century. Deadmans Laneand its continuation, later called Sycamore Street, (fn. 19) have now been lost in Great Central Street, whichwas partly an improvement and widening of existingstreets and partly a completely new road cut through,when the railway was built, to connect the formerSycamore Street with St. Nicholas Street. (fn. 20) Itsconstruction necessitated the rebuilding of St.Nicholas's school, and the demolition of houses inHoly Bones. The new school was designed by J.Stockdale Harrison and was opened in 1906. (fn. 21) Vaughan College, next door, was also designed atthe same time by the same architect. (fn. 22)
Holy Bones, to the east of St. Nicholas's Church,was so named at least from the beginning of the 15thcentury, (fn. 23) most probably because it led to the churchyard. During the 18th century and earlier largequantities of bones of cattle and other animals weredug up there, and these were assumed to be the remains of sacrifices at the Jewry Wall, then supposedto be a temple, and to have given the street itsname. (fn. 24) It is more likely that they came from theSt. Nicholas Shambles. Bath Lane runs north alongthe river from West Bridge. It was named long before the public baths were built there in 1879 fromplans by John Breedon Everard, the city engineer. (fn. 25)
St. Nicholas's parish is now mainly a commercialarea of factories and warehouses, dominated by therailway. There are some houses, and in ThorntonLane is William Carey's cottage, the home of theBaptist missionary to India, which is now a museum, (fn. 26) and is an excellent example of a working-class homeof the type built at the end of the 18th century.
In 1563 120 families lived in the parish, (fn. 27) but bythe beginning of the 18th century there were only90. (fn. 28) In 1801 the population was 947. It rose suddenlyto 1,589 in 1811. In 1871 it reached its highest figure,1,925. (fn. 29) In 1931 the population of the ecclesiasticalparish was 1,388 (fn. 30) and in 1949 it was estimated tohave fallen to about 1,000. (fn. 31)
Church.
St. Nicholas's Church is probably builton the site of the basilica of Roman Leicester,although it is very difficult to say what lies beneaththe church, since only the ground under the narrowpassage between the church and the Jewry Wall canbe excavated. (fn. 32) Any explanation of the foundationand early history of the church must be largely conjectural. It seems very probable that the large earlySaxon church which stood on this site was the minsteror cathedral of the Saxon see of Leicester. Theevidence of the fabric itself does not contradict thepossibility that the building of the church coincideswith the creation of the see. The first recordedbishop, Cuthwine, is known to have been in officefrom 679, although the see itself was not permanentlyestablished until 737. (fn. 33)
The church was probably not dedicated to St.Nicholas originally, that dedication only having beenadopted about 1220. (fn. 34) References to two churches orchapels of St. Augustine and St. Columba, whichhave received a good deal of comment by historiansof Leicester, (fn. 35) have their origin in the Novum Rentaleof Leicester Abbey made by Prior William Charyteat the end of the 15th century. Writing of the parishchurch of Cosby he states: 'Ecclesia de Cosby pertinuit ad ecclesiam sancti Augustini Leycestrie quequidem ecclesia sancti Augustini sita fuerat ad orientalem partem cancelle ecclesie sancti Nicholai Leycestrie. Et erat ipsa ecclesia constructa sub duabustectis conjunctis super medias columpnas cuius unapars erat dedicata sancto Augustino et alla [sic] parsSancte Columbe. (fn. 36) Charyte's evidence for this circ*mstantial statement is not known. It is possible thatthe original dedication of the church was to St. Augustine and that it had a chapel dedicated to St. Columba.It has always been assumed that the two supposedchurches or chapels of St. Augustine and St. Columbawere destroyed shortly after the Norman Conquest,but just as the Jewry Wall stood ruined at the westend of the church, so another ruin at the east end (fn. 37) might explain the reference to St. Augustine andSt. Columba's as a distinct building. It is also possible that the half-remembered change in the dedication of St. Nicholas's Church might have led Charyteor some earlier writer to assume that St. Augustine'sChurch was separate from that of St. Nicholas.
It has been suggested that St. Nicholas's Church,or churchyard, was the meeting-place of the jurats ofthe borough, who left their name as a result to theJewry (or Jury) Wall. This theory was based upon anexplanation offered by Mary Bateson of a passage inthe charter of Robert, Earl of Leicester of the mid12th century, which freed the burgesses from pleading outside the town. The relevant passage runs'neither for pleading nor for any other custom shallthey go out of Leicester, except (tantummodo) adcoumecherchiam as was anciently established'. MissBateson suggested that 'coumecherchiam' was a corruption of 'communiam cherchiam', and by translating 'tantummodo' as 'only', she suggested that thepassage meant that the burgesses should only pleadat meetings in their own common churchyard. (fn. 38) Amore recent suggestion for the meaning of this passageis that 'coumecherchiam' is a contraction of 'communiam serchiam', the duty of aiding the sheriffin finding strayed or stolen cattle, for which the burgesses would clearly have had to go out of the town. (fn. 39)
Whatever the truth of its very early history, itseems certain that the church of St. Nicholas, underits old dedication, was given to the college of St.Mary de Castro in 1107 and passed to LeicesterAbbey on its foundation in 1143. (fn. 40) The abbey hadappropriated it before 1220 (fn. 41) and retained possessionof it until the Dissolution, (fn. 42) when the advowsonpassed to the Crown. The Crown continued to present until 1867 when the advowson was granted tothe Bishop of Peterborough. (fn. 43) The Bishop of Leicester was patron in 1955. (fn. 44)
In 1651–2 it was proposed to unite the benefices ofSt. Nicholas and St. Mary, but this scheme came tonothing. (fn. 45) In 1938 the church was deprived of itsvicarage. Until 1948 it was served by a curate fromSt. Martin's, but the vicarage was then restored. (fn. 46) During the Middle Ages the vicars received a pensionof 6 marks from Leicester Abbey. (fn. 47) Before its appropriation the vicarage had been worth 10 marks. (fn. 48) Twogrants from Queen Anne's Bounty were made in1714 and 1800 and two parliamentary grants in 1813and 1824, but in spite of these augmentations thevicarage was worth only £35 in 1831. (fn. 49) The stipendwas again increased in 1885. (fn. 50)
Little is known about the tithes of the parish afterthe Dissolution, except that in 1626 the corporationpaid tithe to the vicar for the ground on which thepest-house stood. (fn. 51) In 1853 these tithes, then amounting to £2 2s. 6d. yearly, were redeemed for a lumpsum of £55. (fn. 52)
The church of ST. NICHOLAS (fn. 53) consists of naveand chancel, north and south aisles, and centraltower. It is built immediately to the east of the site ofthe Roman forum, 12 feet separating the west end ofthe church from the Jewry Wall, and considerable usewas made in building the church of the Romanmaterial so close at hand.
The pre-Conquest remains of the church are thenorth and west walls of the nave and the wall abovethe 19th-century arch of the south nave arcade.Quoins of green sandstone of this early period surviveat the south-west corner of the nave and at the baseof the disused north-east angle of the chancel, whichwas the north-east corner of the early church. Theends of the middle pier of the north nave arcade areformed of large blocks of the same material. Abovethe north nave arcade are two small windows, thearches on both faces of the wall turned with tworows of Roman bricks. At the present time thesewindows are double-splayed but examination hasshown that in both cases the inner ring of bricks onthe outer side has been cut back and that the windowshad originally only a single splay. These windowsand the wall in which they are set date possibly fromthe 7th century and certainly from before the Danishinvasions. This early church extended for the wholelength of the present nave and chancel (the northeast angle has been mentioned above), and it seemslikely that the Jewry Wall formed the western wall ofthe porticus, which, as at Brixworth (Northants.),was probably continuous round the nave; the navewas probably entered through arches in the sidewalls. Traces of rough foundation walls between thewest end of the church and the Jewry Wall werediscovered at the excavation of that site. This westernporticus may have been designed for the instructionof catechumens. (fn. 54)
The second stage in the building took place in thelast part of the 11th century, when building wascarried out in brown sandstone, dressed with axes.At this time a central tower seems to have been builtin stone to a height just above the roof line, and thenprobably completed in timber. The herring-bonearrangement of Roman tiles at the base of the towerdates from this time. A blocked opening in the northnave wall possibly led to a stair, and there may havebeen transepts to this church.
In the 12th century the tower was completed ingrey limestone to its present height, two stories aboveand two below the roof line. The present arcade wascut in the north nave wall, and a similar arcade wasprobably cut in the south wall. That on the north(the only one surviving) is of two bays, the archesspringing from the old central pier, which wasredressed and chamfered. The wide blocked arch inthe west wall and the south doorway with its simplehood and abaci with nail-head ornament are ofthe same date, probably the first half of the century.
The chancel of the 12th-century church was narrower than the nave and its walls were pierced,probably for chapels, early in the 13th century. Thesouth arcade still survives and is of two bays withpointed arches. That on the north is of one bay andis now blocked up. There seems to have been asacristy farther east on the north side, where apiscina remains in the outer wall. The south aisle,which runs the full length of the church, was addedabout 1300. The broach spire, which was demolishedpartly in 1805 and partly a short while later, (fn. 55) wasprobably added in the late 13th or early 14th century.The clerestory was built in the 14th or 15th century,when the nave walls were raised. The line of theoriginal roof can be seen above the chancel arch. Thetimber-framed south porch was added in the 16thcentury. In 1697 the north aisle was demolished as itwas dangerous, (fn. 56) and the north arcade was blocked.It is not known exactly when the aisle had beenbuilt. At the beginning of the last century the chancelwas in use as a vestry and the altar was in the southaisle. (fn. 57) In 1825 a proposal was made to demolish thewhole structure as it was held to be in an extremelydangerous condition. (fn. 58) Owing to the poverty of theparish, however, no funds could be raised for theproposed rebuilding, and nothing was done. Extensive alterations took place a few years later, when thesouth nave arcade was taken down and replaced by alarge brick arch which spans the whole of the formerarcade. The architect of this restoration and alteration was an otherwise unknown Mr. Mortin. Thecorporation subscribed two sums of £100 each towards the work. (fn. 59) The church was reseated at thesame time. Restorations were again carried out in1873–6, when F. W. Ordish rebuilt the old northaisle; (fn. 60) this was not carried to the length of the southaisle, and its east wall ends on a level with the easternpillars of the tower. The wall is roughly filled withrubble masonry. This new aisle is wider than theformer one. At the same time the porch was renewed,the interior walls freed from plaster, the windowmouldings renewed and various other replacementswere made. A new pulpit was made to Ordish'sdesign, based on one in northern Italy. The churchwas again restored in 1904–5, when Charles Bakerwas responsible for securing the tower with steelsupports and for restoring the outside of the tower,clerestory and north aisle. (fn. 61) Further restorations tookplace in 1949. (fn. 62) Nearly all the outer walls of thechurch show considerable signs of these variousrestorations, and most of the windows are modern.
There is an 18th-century sundial of Swithlandslate on the south wall. The south aisle containsa mutilated piscina and triple sedilia. In 1929 thisaisle was dedicated as a memorial chapel to CanonEdward Atkins. (fn. 63)
The font stands at the west end of the south aisle,and dates from the last century. (fn. 64) It is a square blockof sandstone, with a scooped basin, supported on asingle alabaster column. The old plate consists of asilver paten of 1706, a cup of 1714 and a cup andflagon of 1736. There are also three 18th-centurypewter plates and some 19th-century silver. (fn. 65) Theorgan was installed in 1890. (fn. 66) There are three bells,all by unknown bell-founders, but cast in 1617, 1656,and 1710. Only that cast in 1710 is now used. (fn. 67) Theregisters date from 1560 and the churchwardens'accounts from 1761.
The churchyard was closed for burials in 1856.Part of it was taken for street-widening in 1898. (fn. 68)
Charities.
Francis Palmer gave at an unknowndate an annuity of 10s., charged upon a house inJewry Wall Street, to be distributed among the poor.In 1837 the money was being distributed by thecorporation. (fn. 69) Sir William Wilson of Sutton Coldfield (Warws.) left, by will proved in 1710, a yearlysum of £10 from property at Sutton to be used forthe apprenticing of poor children from the parish.The bequest was to take effect from 1792; in 1837the children were being apprenticed mostly to framework-knitters. (fn. 70) Mrs. Elizabeth Clarke left £50 'bywill in 1780' in trust for the poor. The parish added£5. The stock was apparently sold in 1801 to defraya debt of £130 for building at the workhouse. (fn. 71) Bywill dated 1821 Thomas Read left £50 in trustfor bread for the poor on St. Thomas's Day. Theinterest was added to money received from the corporation and a substantial distribution of bread usedto be made. (fn. 72) One other charity, Smart's Charity forbread, was lost before 1837. (fn. 73) One-half of the JohnNorrice Charity is payable to the vicar by the Trusteesof the Leicester General Charities. The corporationpay sums to the parish under the Courteen and Ivecharities, which also receives a share of the HeyrickCharity for bread from the Trustees of the LeicesterGeneral Charities. (fn. 74)
