St Nicholas Compton

"How privileged we are in this Parish to have such a gem of a Church as St Nicholas ... What makes this Church so special is not only the magnificent architecture or the craftmanship displayed by the masons, the woodworkers and the artists; for me at least, it is also the simplicity and harmony of the whole, drenched in prayer and word of Almighty God.  It is hard to realise that this Church was built before the first Millennium - nearer to the birth of Jesus than we are now to the building of our Church."

Words from James More-Molyneux, co-Patron of St Nicholas to 2013

The Domesday Book records a Church in Compton (Contone) in 1086.  It is probable that this consisted of the present tower, with an aisleless nave in the line of what are now the piers of the nave.

At the east end was perhaps a narrow arch leading to a chancel, which would probably have terminated at the step of the present sanctuary. There is a sight-line from the anchorite's cell to the position of the altar which was unblocked in 1929/1930.

The work done on the church between the Conquest in 1066 and c 1200 left the fabric substantially as it is today and was carried out in two distinct periods.
The chancel arch was built and the Saxon chancel extended eastwards with new windows in the North and South wall between c.1080-1100.
The greatest Norman building period was slightly later, between c.1160-80 date, when the arched pillars of the nave were created leading to the north and south aisles. The two-storied sanctuary with its magnificent carved arch and vault below and its nine-arched wooden balustrade above also date from the end of the Norman period.

The main structure of the church had been completed by the year 1200 - with one outstanding exception - the shingled broach spire which probably dates from the thirteenth or fourteenth century. Additional light was provided in the chancel with new lancet windows and by decorated windows in the east walls of the aisles.

The south wall of the Norman south aisle was raised in this period by about one metre.
The Elizabethan Acts and Injunctions passed to strengthen Protestantism allowed for churches to be provided with new plate. St Nicholas’ Chalice from this time, namely a ’Communion cuppe of silver’ dating from 1569 is on loan to the Diocesan Treasury and can be seen at Guildford Cathedral.

The main features of this period are the wooden furnishings, provided c.1620, to meet the liturgical requirements of the Protestant church - the splendid pulpit and tester, the Communion rails and the screen. The altar table probably dates from c.1680 and would have been set with the Fulham Flagon and Paten (now both in the Cathedral Treasury).

This was a period of restoration and adaptation. In 1843 the church was re-pewed. The porch was rebuilt in 1845 and the vestry added in 1859. A major reconstruction of the nave roof was effected by Henry Woodyer in 1869 when the two dormers on the south side were replaced by three new ones.

A large window in the upper part of the east wall introduced in 1859, glazed with painted glass in 1876, was blocked up in 1953. Between 1906 and 1907 buttresses were placed at the east end of the chancel where large cracks had appeared.

In 1937 electricity was installed in the church to complement the newly improved hot-water pipe heating system after the old stoves were removed. Between 1995 and 1996 new choir stalls, a new organ and four new bells were added to the two seventeenth-century bells already in the tower.

In 2000, an oak partition was installed at the western end of the north aisle to provide a small kitchen area. During  2023-2024, the medieval North door that was stopped up in Victorian times was re-opened, with landscaping in the North lawn to provide step-free access to the church.