Publication Account

Date 1997

Event ID 1019107

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1019107

The origins of the Church of St Nicholas are uncertain. It is first noted in a papal bull of Pope Adrian IV in 1157. Although some doubts have been placed on the authenticity of this document, archaeological evidence does suggest that the church was at least a twelfth century foundation, and a church may have existed on this site from much earlier times. The siting of the church, on high ground overlooking the Green and to the west of the medieval urban nucleus, outside the town ports, has been the subject of some discussion. However, the positioning of the parish church outwith the main urban settlement is in itself not unusual: St Mary's Church, Dundee, for example, was similarly placed and other examples may also be noted in Crail and Edinburgh. A parish church was not of necessity an urban parish church; rural parishes might pre-date urban growth. Gordon of Rothiemay gives a description of a church built in 1060, but offers no independent evidence in support. It is, however, possible that St Nicholas Church was founded on the site of an earlier Christian establishment or even one of pre-Christian origin with religious associations, but there is no historical or archaeological evidence to support or disprove this theory. The dedication might suggest that the church which was in existence by the twelfth century was founded in the late eleventh century and served a community engaged in overseas trading. Berwick, Newcastle, Amsterdam, Kiel and Hamburg, all North Sea trading communities, also favoured St Nicholas as their Patron saint. Perhaps this small seafaring settlement clustered near the church and extended southwards to the base of St Katherine's Hill, at the eastern end of the later-named Green. The church would, therefore, have been in close proximity to the early nucleus, and only with expansion eastwards would the parish church appear to take on the nature of an extra-urban establishment. An alternative theory is that St Nicholas was carved out of St Machar's Parish by the allocation of 800 acres, leaving 3200 acres for the parent parish, at a time when the small trading settlement on the banks of the Dee had grown sufficiently to merit a parish separate from that of St Machar two miles further north. The new church was of necessity on a peripheral site either because there was an insufficiency of gap sites for building in the centre or because the bishop chose to place the church on land already in his possession.

The earliest surviving architectural remains, dating from the late twelfth century, point to a church building consisting of an aisled nave, with north and south transepts, topped by a central tower, the east end being furnished with an aisled chancel of three bays and ending in a semi-circular apse. The transepts were extended to the south in 1355, and about this time a chapel was apparently added to the east side of the north transept, resulting in the blocking of one window and the insertion of a doorway in the east wall. There is reference to a chapel in 1445 when it was known as the vault of ‘Our Lady of Pity'. The appellation 'St Mary' in Gordon charters occurs as later additions in blank spaces.

A new choir was begun c 1477 and John Fendour's craftsmanship was exhibited here. In 1495 money was lent to the town council 'to pay Johne Fendour for the makeing of the ruff and tymmer of the queyr', 15 and by 1508 he was to receive £200 Scots and a bounty if by Michaelmas 1508 he had completed his work, which was to 'big, oupmak, and finally end and complet the xxxiiij stallis in thar queir, with the spiris and the chanslar dur, and ale uther thingis according tharto'. A further improvement was an oak-built steeple over the main body of the church, which was to survive until destroyed by fire in 1874 figure 25.

The medieval parish church of St Nicholas was not only one of the largest burgh churches in Scotland, being 256 ft (78 m) long, but also one of the most prestigious. In 1256, the parochial revenues of St Nicholas were assigned to the sixth prebend of the Cathedral of St Machar. The church housed a number of altars and chaplainries. By 1450, ten chaplainries had been endowed: the cordiners endowed St Crispin's in 1495; the masons that of Stjohn the Baptist; and the hammermen supported the altar of St Eloiryne. In 1491 the number of chaplains was twenty-two. This may soon have been reduced to sixteen, although thirty-four stalls were ordered for the new choir on its construction in 1507. As the number of chaplainries grew, there developed a college of chaplains which preceded the constitution of St Nicholas as a collegiate church by at least a century. It was not until 1540, with the granting of the vicarage of St Nicholas to 'the college of the chaplenis of ... San ct Nicholas Kirk ... for sustenation of ane provest', that full collegiate status was achieved.

The church was further supported by the town, local gentry, and nobility with grants of rentals, endowments of chaplainries and other gifts. Burgesses also gave of their skills in the repair and adornment of the church. The St Nicholas Cartulary gives indications of the many gifts to the church in the form of lands or rents, bells, chalices and the like. William Leth, for example, donated two bells and Ralph Voket repainted the image of St Nicholas; Sir John Rutherford granted valuable rents between 1489 and 1506 from various Aberdeen tenements.23 From the fifteenth century there is evidence of money raised by the town authorities for the 'kirk wark': for example, funds were assigned from the town fishings to pay for choir fittings in 14 7 7; £35 was raised in 1500 towards the cost of lead for the church and its transport from Berwick on Tweed to Aberdeen; and, again, in 1513 a further £74 was donated for improvements to the church fabric.

Despite a conservative rearguard action after the Reformation, St Nicholas Church by the 1580s was stripped of most of its Catholic furnishings. In 1596, it was divided into two separate churches, serving two different parishes. The nave housed a large congregation throughout part of the seventeenth century. By 1 732, however, it had become so ruinous that it had to be abandoned. It was occupied by the Duke of Cumberland's troops in 1746, and was rebuilt between 1750 and 1755 to a design by James Gibb when it was re-opened as the West Church. The choir was divided from the transept by a stone wall after the Reformation and housed a separate congregation as the New Church. It was rebuilt in 1837 as the East Church, but burned down in 1874 and was re-opened in 1876.

Most of the surviving evidence of the twelfth-century work is in the north transept, now called Collison's Aisle. This is one of the most significant medieval remnants of New Aberdeen. The transept was remodelled in the seventeenth century, but, despite alterations, the exterior walls show the series of characteristic round-headed, deep-splayed windows, now blocked up, and there are two small archways which led to the main aisle. This transitional-style architecture dates to the late twelfth or early thirteenth century, and is further evidenced in the four arches under the central tower and clerestory windows in the east and west walls of the aisle, one of which has angle shafts with carved cap and mouldings. The mortuary or chantry chapel of the Gordon family, or vault of ‘Our Lady of Pity', was designed on a three-bay plan, with rib and groin vault, and now houses fine examples of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century woodwork, some executed by John Fendour. It is now known as St Mary's chapel, and may be entered from Correction Wynd. Some archaeological evidence has been recovered from St Nicholas Church, including twelfth-century foundations, a later medieval tomb and human remains (see below).

Information from ‘Historic Aberdeen: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1997).