Church Of St James

The Church of St James is a parish church dating from 1764. It incorporates medieval masonry in the west end and tower, had aisles added around 1800, and the chancel was rebuilt in 1896, with the addition of an organ chamber. It is possibly by William Newton for Rowland Burdon I. The church is constructed of dressed and ashlar limestone with sandstone window surrounds, and has green slate roofs. Its design is Early Gothick featuring pointed-arched windows in raised surrounds.

The west tower has three stepped stages, an embattled belfry, and an octagonal, lead-covered spire with a weathercock. Each stage has pointed openings to the front and quatrefoils to the returns, some of which are blocked. A 20th-century external staircase leads to a first-floor porch and door. Single eight-pane windows are high in the flanking west aisle walls. The three-bay nave has a low plinth, three similar windows, and a low-pitched roof with coped gables and shaped kneelers. A 19th-century gabled bellcote is near the east end of the north wall. The two-bay chancel has similar features, including a Venetian east window with a pointed centre light. The north vestry and south organ chamber have low-pitched lean-to roofs.

Inside, each aisle has two unfluted Corinthian columns on tall bases. There is a 19th-century wood west gallery. The ceiling is coved, with exposed tie beams and stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops. The semicircular chancel arch is flanked by smaller similar openings. An early 20th-century screen incorporates early 18th-century carved woodwork with flower and leaf motifs. The chancel floor is of encaustic tiles and the ceiling is coved, panelled, and painted, dating from 1896. Fittings include a marble wall monument on the north chancel wall to Rowland Burdon II (died 1838), two early, coped grave covers in the east wall of the organ chamber, a brass memorial plaque on the east wall of the south aisle to W.S. Hicks (died 1902, who redecorated the church), an oval marble tablet in the vestry commemorating the church's rebuilding in 1764, and an 18th-century oval marble font on a baluster shaft at the west end of the nave. Stained glass includes two windows from around 1915 by Heaton, Butler and Bayne of London, and a memorial window from 1949 to Rowland Burdon (1857-1948) by L.C. Evetts.