St Nicholas' Church is a Grade I listed parish church in the village of Berden, Essex, England.
Of the Early English Gothic style, the church has a Norman nave with 13th-century transepts and a tower dated to the 15th century. It underwent major restoration in 1868.
The church held a 20th-century 38-year revival of a "Boy Bishop" miracle play. It contains memorials to significant families of the local Berden Hall and Berden Priory, and to a murdered Berden parish constable.
St Nicholas' is part of a joint benefice—sharing a common priest— in the Deanery of Saffron Walden of the Diocese of Chelmsford. Other churches in the group are St Mary the Virgin at Manuden; St Simon and St Jude at Quendon; and All Saints at Rickling."St. Mary the Virgin Manuden", Manuden Parish Council. Retrieved May 2014"Berden: St Nicholas", The Church of England. Retrieved 24 May 2014
History No church or priest for Berden is mentioned in the 1086 Domesday Book."Berden", Domesdaymap.co.uk. Retrieved 24 May 2014 St Nicholas' parish register dates from 1715.Kelly's Directory of Essex 1914, pp.48-49
The present church nave dates from the 12th century, with the chancel and transepts from the 13th, and the tower from the 15th. The chancel was rebuilt in part, and the church restored, in the 19th century at which time a south porch was added."Saint Nicholas Berden Parish Church", Berden Community Website (Berden.org.uk). Retrieved 8 February 2014 A complete 1868 restoration was carried out at a cost of £2000.Post Office Directory of Essex, Kelly & Co. (1874), pp.20-21 Before the 1868 restoration the church was recorded as containing a north and a south aisle, and a tower of four bells;Post Office Directory of Essex, Kelly & Co. (1855), p.13 and in 1818 as containing five bells.Cromwell, Thomas Kitson; Excursions in the County of Essex (1818), Vol 1. p.108; (reprint Ulan Press 2012)
The earliest record of a priest at Berden is that of John de Askeby in 1325. At the time of the Church of England's Secession and break with Rome Berden priests were appointed by the Bishop of London. During the 19th century the incumbent priest held his office and living under a vicarage, or a curacy that might have been perpetual or stipendiary. The living of the Rev Frederick Gifford Nash in the mid-19th century had a yearly value of £150, with a further allowance of £18. 10s from Queen Anne's Bounty. He received a residence and of glebe—land used to support a parish priest—in the gift of Christ's Hospital. By the end of the 19th century the value of the living had not increased, and had only risen slightly to £182 by 1914.
Within the churchyard, to the south-west of the tower, is a stone marker for the grave of Henry Trigg. Trigg was the Berden parish constable at the beginning of the 19th century, and ran a shoe shop adjacent to Berden Hall in the village. On the night of 25 March 1814 two men from Bishops Stortford, a William Pratt and a Thomas Turner, broke into Trigg's shop to thieve leather goods. They were confronted by Trigg and his father. Trigg offered defence by disabling Turner, but after a Pratt attempt to shoot Trigg's father with a double-barrelled gun, both father and son made to escape. Pratt, using the words "Now, damn your heart, I will do for you", then shot Trigg in the chest, killing him. A year later Pratt and Turner were captured by the Bow Street Runners, sentenced to death, and sent to the gallows. The words "In memory of Henry Trigg of this Parish Aged 36 years Who was murdered March 25th 1814 endeavouring to protect his property" were recorded as written on the tombstone. Following the execution of Pratt and Turner, a postscript was reportedly added to Trigg's stone: "March 13th 1815 Wm Pratt, Thos Turner Both of Bishops Stortford, Herts. Were executed at Chelmsford for the above offence on their own confession".Feather, Fred; "The Slaying of Parish Constable Trigg", History Notebook Number 2], Essex Police Museum (Essex.police.uk). Retrieved 24 May 2014"The Murder of Henry Trigg", Berden Community Website (Berden.org.uk). Retrieved 24 May 2014
The Rev Herbert Kynaston Hudson, vicar from 1899 to 1937, reintroduced the miracle play and ceremony of the 'Boy Bishop', based on a 15th-century tradition. A boy would take the role of bishop, central to the event celebrating the life of Saint Nicholas, and would hold the 'office' for the year. Hudson set up in 1901 the 'Guild of St Nicholas' for both boys and girls, this to organize the event and elect the 'bishop'. The event was again revived in 1956-57 and between 1961 and 1966. An equivalent election was for a girl as the 'May Queen', who was accompanied by the Boy Bishop and the vicar to the top of the church tower on May Day. Film units from British-Pathé and Gaumont British recorded and screened Berden's Boy Bishop ceremony."Village Elects Boy Bishop 1921", British-Pathé, silent video. Retrieved 24 May 2014"Boy bishop elected in Berden", ITN, silent video (Itnsource.com). Retrieved 24 May 2014Mackenzie, Neil (2011); The Medieval Boy Bishops, Matador, p.111. . Retrieved May 2014Hutton, Ronald (2001); Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain, Oxford Paperbacks. . Retrieved 24 May 2014"Boy Bishops or Nicholas Youth Bishops", St. Nicholas Center. Retrieved May 2014"Berden", Visitoruk.comTrapmore, Mark; "Boy Bishops and May Queens in Berden", The Recorders of Uttlesford History. Retrieved 24 May 2014
St Nicholas' received an English Heritage Grade I building listing on 21 February 1967.
In 2009 St Nicholas' received a grant of £3000 for tiling and gutter work from the Friends of Essex Churches.“Berden St Nicholas”, Foect.org.uk. Retrieved 24 May 2014
Architecture
Exterior
St Nicholas' is of flint rubble, clunch and limestone construction, and cruciform footprint. It comprises a chancel, nave, north and south transepts, a west tower and a south porch, and is of Early English and Perpendicular style. The roofs are red tiled throughout.
The church's 15th-century three-stage tower is of Gothic Perpendicular style. Of approximately square in footprint, the bottom stage contains a door and window on its west face. The restored 15th-century door, faced with decorative hinges, is set within a chamfered arch topped by a rectilinear enclosure; between this and the arch are spandrels with inset rosettes containing quatrefoils. Around the top of the squared surround is a rectilinear hood mould. Above the door is a restored 15th-century Perpendicular pointed arch window set within a chamfered reveal. The window is of three lights up to the outer arch spring, each ending in a trefoil-headed arch. Above the lights is panel tracery—a Perpendicular style of upright straight openings above lower lights—leading to further arches. Around the window opening arch is a hood mould. The second tower stage west side, slightly set back, contains a narrow arrowslit window rebated within an arch, possibly 15th-century. Above the apex of the window opening is a small round stone with a carved diagonal cross inset. On the south face is a c. 2000 tower clock; circular, convex, and with gold numerals. The belfry third stage, set back again, contains a restored 15th-century window opening on all sides, all of two lights with trefoil heads, louvred, and ending in a flattened pointed arch with hood mould. The tower parapet is deeply embattled. Inset behind the battlements is a four-sided pyramid stub spire. An angled buttress runs almost to the height of the first stage at the nave ends of the north and south sides—English Heritage states there are no tower buttresses. From the bases of the buttresses is a simple moulded socle (plinth) topped by a cill band—angled projection that allows water to flow from a building face— running around the tower.Trapmore, Mark; "Berden - St Nicholas Church", The Recorders of Uttlesford History. Retrieved 24 May 2014
The nave is approximately east to west and north to south. The north side contains a 19th-century window with arched lancets and a twin-stepped angle buttress. Running off the nave south side is the 1868 porch, with door set within a deeply rounded arch opening with a following hood mould above. On both east and west sides is a small twin-light window with ogee trefoiled head arches within a rectilinear frame. The porch roof is steeply pitched and surmounted by a cross of Celtic appearance. Within the porch, to the right of the nave door opening is a 15th-century stoup with worn basin within a pointed recess. Immediately to the east of the porch is three-light flat-arched window with cinquefoil heads, dated to the 15th century with reused 13th-century material.
Attached between the nave and chancel are north and south transepts. The north transept is east to west, and north to south. It has a 19th-century window of three lights below tracery on both the east and north walls, both within a 14th-century opening. To the west of the north window is a 13th-century arched doorway, above which is a small niche with trefoil head. The south transept is east to west, and north to south. It contains on its east side a restored 14th-century window with ogee-headed twin lights and tracery within a square head. The south wall 14th-century window is of ogee-headed twin lights and tracery with an arch surround and hood mould. The south transept has twin-stepped diagonal buttresses.
The Chancel is east to west, and north to south. The east chancel window, part of the 1868 restoration, is of three lights, the centre light running to the chamfered window arch, the outer lights running to the window arch spring. The mullions have three part circular shafts as dressing sitting on moulded bases, topped with floriated capitals. Above the two outer lights are quatrefoil rosettes set within fields of filigree style. A hood mould joins a 19th-century horizontal cill band, which runs across the wall face and continues in stepped fashion across east wall corner twin-stepped angle buttresses, and around the north and south chancel walls. The north and south chancel windows are of the same style, but of two lights. The north wall also contains a further c. 1270 single-lancet arched window, and an arched door way of the same date with the arch surrounded by a hood mould with personified carved label stops.
Interior
The church walls and ceilings are rendered and painted white throughout. All windows are glazed with translucent rectilinear glass panels, in clear, red or blue. All flooring is plain red tiling except on the raised chancel sanctuary behind the altar rail where there is added bands of black, white and brown. The chancel east window is part of the 19th-century restoration, but with the use of a c. 1270 capital detail. The c. 1270 chamfered rebated chancel arch has a hood mould finished with human head label stops on both chancel and nave sides. Set within the arch is a further chamfered arch supported by responds—half-piers attached to walls supporting an arch—of semi-circular columns with flat-face faceted moulded bases, and foliate capitals that have been part-restored. A 19th-century-added arched squint is on each side of the chancel arch, each with a chamfered rebate as part of the arch. Set above each squint on the chancel side is a gable as moulding with, at its spring and point, a carved foliated detail. Within the chancel is a 14th-century piscina containing a quatrefoil shaped drain.