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White's Directory of Nottinghamshire, 1853

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Nottingham, St Nicholas

The Parish

St Nicholas Parish averages about 500 yards in length and 250 in breadth. It is bounded on the west by Brewhouse Yard, the castle wall, Standard Hill, the General infirmary and Park Row; and on the north by Chapel Bar, Angel Row and beastmarket Hill; whence its boundary, including the greater part of Friar Lane, passes in an irregular line behind the Friends' Meeting House and Independent Chapel, across Castle Gate to Greyfriargate, down which it passes to the Leen, which forms the southern limit of the parish.Its principal streets are Castle Gate, Houndsgate, Park Street, Rutland Street, St James' Street, Mount Street and Park Row. It has its parish church, several chapels and other public buildings, one of which is Bromley House.

The Church

St Nicholas Church is a neat, brick edifice ornamented with stone, and like St Peter's, shaded by a number of trees. It occupies a pleasant situation on the south side of Castlegate, whence its large burial ground extends to Chesterfield Street and Rosemary Lane. The building was commenced in 1671, and finished in 1678, on the site of an ancient fabric which was destroyed in 1647. when a party of royalists took possession of it, and from the steeple so annoyed the parliamentarians in the castle, that they could not "play the ordnance without the woolsacks before them", and the bullets from the church "played so thick into the outward castle yard, that they could not pass from one gate to another, nor relieve the guards without very great hazard". The church, however, was soon set on fire, and the royalist obliged to fly from its falling ruins. The present edifice has a light and airy appearance, and has a tower with one bell, at the west end. It has a spacious nave and two side aisles. the southernmost of which was much enlarged by subscription in 1756; and a similar extension of the north aisle took place in 1733, when £500 was raised for the purpose. It has since been new paved and ornamented with a handsome pulpit and a reading desk, and also with a new gallery on the north side. The organ was erected in 1811. On each side of the communion table are elegant paintings representing the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son, and the walls are decorated with many neat monumental tablets, and four hatchments belonging to the families of Newdigate, Smith, Bromley and Cooper. The living is a Rectory, valued in the King's books at £2 1s 8d, now £216. It is, like St Peter's, nominally in the patronage of the crown, but virtually in the gift of the Lord Chancellor. The Rev. William Joseph Butler M.A. is the incumbent.