Church Of Saints Philip And James

Church of Saints Philip and James

This is a parish church of mid-12th century date, with a chancel that may have been extended in the 13th century. The building was restored in 1806, then substantially restored again in 1855 by the architect Salvin, who added a new bellcote, vestry and apse. A north aisle was added in 1866 by F.R. Wilson. The church is built in squared stone with an ashlar apse and ashlar dressings. The roof is covered with Scottish slate on the nave and Welsh slates on other parts. The plan comprises a nave with a 3-bay north aisle, a chancel with an apse and north vestry, and the style is Romanesque.

The west elevation is twin-gabled. The original right part has a plinth and corner pilasters with shafts at the angles. A central raised panel contains a boarded door with C-hinges set in a round-headed arch with chevron ornament, on jamb shafts with scalloped capitals. A tegulated hood springs from a string course with lozenge ornament. A second similar string course on grotesque corbels sits below the 19th-century gable, which has a round-headed window between cruciform panels. Above this is a Romanesque twin-arched bellcote with a moulded finial. The west end of the aisle has a similar central panel with a 2-light window and a World War I memorial plaque below, crowned by a Maltese cross finial.

The 4-bay south nave wall shows flat pilasters and an arcaded corbel table. It contains one narrow 12th-century loop and two 19th-century double lancets with hoodmoulds. The north aisle wall is the north wall of the old nave rebuilt stone-for-stone, with 2 bays containing pilasters and corbel table, one 12th-century loop and two 19th-century lancets.

The 2-bay south chancel wall displays similar pilasters, but the corbel table is only in the eastern bay. It has triple and single 19th-century lancets. On the north wall is a 12th-century loop to the west of the vestry. The apse has a corbel table on shafted pilasters with single-light windows that have shafted jambs, moulded arches and sunk panels beneath.

In the interior, the west door's rear arch has shafted jambs with fluted capitals. The 3-bay arcade has double-chamfered round arches on round piers with scalloped capitals. The chancel arch is notably fine, dating to the 12th century, with a moulded inner order. Towards the nave the outer order has zig-zag ornament and an enriched hood, both orders sitting on attached jamb shafts with variously fluted and scalloped capitals and a patterned impost block on the north. A string with lozenge pattern runs on the east wall of the nave above the chancel arch. The triple lancet on the south chancel wall has an old moulded segmental rear arch with remains of wall painting. A blocked 13th-century lancet sits to the east of a 19th-century moulded vestry doorway. The apse has shafted rear arches and a tiled floor. Four shields are displayed, three as roof corbels: three bear Swinhoe arms (three swine) and one bears Proctor arms (three water bougets). The 19th-century roofs feature hollow-chamfered eaves cornices broken forward around corbels carrying arch braces to tie-beam trusses with collars.

The font has a triple-stepped square shaft and a restored moulded hexagonal bowl. The organ in the north aisle was designed and presented by Robert H.M. Bosanquet in 1881 and built by the firm Messrs. Gray and Davison.

Monuments include a late 12th-century cross slab with sword and axe on the chancel floor. On the south of the chancel is a brass plate to John Salkeld, who died in 1620, and a wall tablet signed by W. Smith to Colonel John Salkeld, who served King Charles I with "a Constant dangerous and Expensive loyalty" and died in 1705. On the north wall are a pedimented marble plaque to Charlotte Anne Bosanquet, who died in 1830, and a marble plaque with a bas-relief bust signed by J. Edward of London to Charles Bosanquet, who died in 1850.