Visiting St Nicholas
Opening times: 9.00 am to 5.00 pm (12.00 to 5.00 on Sunday). Please note that occasionally entry to the church is restricted due to a service or concert.
Printed guides are available in several languages and stewards are often available to give visitors a warm welcome and further information.
Access
There is a descent of three steps inside the church. Unfortunately, there is no independent access for wheelchair users. However, step-free access is available when the Parish Office is open (usually Tuesday to Friday 9.30 am to 2.30 pm). To use this access, please turn right at the main entrance and take the path alongside the church. Knock on the door at the end of the path. If someone is in the office they will open the door for you. Please note that the path alongside the church can be slippery in wet weather. Alternatively, you are welcome to contact the Parish Office to arrange your visit. If we know when you are visiting we will do our best to ensure step-free access for you.
No visit to Arundel is complete without visiting the town's historic parish church – it's a veritable "Hidden gem!" Set between the Victorian Roman Catholic cathedral and the 'Victorianised' castle lies Arundel's 14th century parish church.
There were at least two earlier churches on or near the site of the present one, of which fragments remain in the exterior walls or elsewhere in the building. The imposing church which we see today was begun around 1380, almost certainly to the designs of two of the most celebrated masons/architects of the day, Henry Yeveley and William Wynford, whose work may be seen in the naves of Canterbury and Winchester Cathedrals respectively, and in other prestigious historic buildings of the period.
Built in flint and local stone, the church consists of two separate though integral parts, a chancel and nave. The church's chancel was originally used by a small College of Canons. However, at the Reformation it was seized along with the Priory buildings by the 12th Duke of Arundel, Henry Fitzalan, and subsequently became the private property of the Earl and his descendants. Today it serves as the burial place for the Dukes of Norfolk.
Over the years the fabric of the church has suffered little alteration, but, in common with the majority of church buildings, the interior arrangements have been frequently altered following religious upheavals and changes in architectural and liturgical fashion.
But St Nicholas Church still retains many features of some importance. Many of them are contemporary with the building: like the Font; the remarkable stone Pulpit; a rare medieval iron screen; Consecration Crosses; corbels; wall paintings; mason's marks and graffiti of which Arundel has a remarkable quantity; an unusually large Royal Coat of Arms; the organ which occupies part of the north transept; and the recently renovated bells in the tower.
St Nicholas' church possess surviving fragments of medieval wall paintings. In this detail we see the seventh corporal act of mercy - burying the dead. The priest is pictured reading the burial rites and sprinkling a shrouded body with holy water.