St Nicholas

About

St Nicholas' is the Grade I listed Anglican parish church of Walcot near Folkingham, a small village in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, about 7 miles south of Sleaford and a mile north of Folkingham. It sits within the Church of England parish of South Lafford, in the Diocese of Lincoln.

The church is externally 14th century, with an interior showing work spanning the 12th to 15th centuries. Its tall, crocketed broach spire is a landmark visible across the surrounding countryside, and the churchyard is home to a magnificent weeping beech tree. In the churchyard also stands a 14th-century limestone cross, its octagonal shaft reset on an irregular base and fitted with a later iron sundial.

History

Walcot's name derives from the Old English "walh" and "cot," meaning "cottage(s) of the Britons," and the village was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Walecote," with a church already standing among its 6 villagers, 14 freemen and 5 smallholders. Before the Conquest, lordship of the manor was held by the Abbey of St Peter, Peterborough, passing to Gilbert de Ghent by 1086.

The present building's earliest surviving features date from the 12th century, including a trefoil-headed piscina in the south aisle, with substantial rebuilding through the 13th and 14th centuries adding the broad, crocketed spire, a 14th-century braced tie-beam roof on fluted stone corbels, a second piscina, and finely carved doorways and bench ends. A 13th-century decorated oak panel, reset into a later chest in the north aisle, also survives from this period.

The church's foundations were renewed in 1889, and it underwent a thorough restoration in 1907, with further restoration work carried out in 1926. It seats around 250 people.

St Nicholas' was designated a Grade I listed building on 1 February 1967. Its surviving Anglican parish registers date back to 1574.