Church of St Nicholas

St Nicholas of Myra is a Grade I listed parish church in the village of South Ockendon, Essex. It stands on the south side of the green, where it has occupied the same spot for 860 years. The church is dedicated to St Nicholas, a 4th-century bishop from Myra, now in modern Turkey. He is the patron saint of Russia, Greece, children, merchants, sailors and scholars. The building forms part of the Mardyke Team Ministry. The church’s round tower is one of only six Essex round-tower churches. The tower’s four bells were destroyed by lightning in 1652–53, but a replacement was cast in 1678. A later bell, installed in 1865, came from the famous Whitechapel Bell Foundry. The north doorway dates from the 12th century and was reset in the 15th century. Its Norman carvings include spiral fluting, shaft rings and foliage on the capitals. Inside, the Lady Chapel contains the fine Elizabethan monument to Sir Richard Saltonstall. He was Lord of the Manor, church patron and Lord Mayor of London in 1597. The monument shows him in his mayoral insignia, flanked by his wife Susannah and their sixteen children. The chapel walls are of flint and Reigate stone, with dressings added in the 19th century. The church’s chancel and north chapel were restored in 1866 after earlier collapses.