Our Church Centre is across the busy ring road from the main church buildings. It contains a large hall, kitchen and toilets on the ground floor, and three rooms upstairs. The hall and rooms are used by various organisations, though facilities are increasingly limited. The "St. Nicolas Church & Community Project" has developed plans to replace the hall with a modern building next to the church which will incorporate the old Grammar School and help to meet the needs of the local community in the twenty-first century.
Page last updated on 4th March 2009.
The Leeke chapel (originally a Lady Chapel) was reconstructed by a local merchant, John Leeke, in 1507 when he endowed it as a chantry. It is now used mainly for smaller communion services, for private prayer and healing ministry. In the Leeke chapel is a carved head which has been thought to be either a carving of Edward III or a "green man".
Above the head is an opening which was originally used to pass food to lepers, but now houses an aumbry.
The Leeke chapel is also home to the only complete stained glass window in the church, the others having been victims of bombing during World War II. The absence of stained glass and the internal lime-washed walls gives the church a light and airy feel inside.
In the sixteenth century, the Leeke chapel was also home to the local grammar school. The school was granted a charter in 1552 by King Edward VI, and in 1596 moved to the small redbrick building in the churchyard which now houses the parish office, a small lounge and toilets. The Grammar school (now King Edward's Sixth Form College) moved to its present site behind the church in King Edward's Road in 1879.
St. Nicolas Church Centre
The Old Grammar School
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