Church Of St James

The Church of St. James is a Grade II listed chapel of ease built in 1832 and later designated as a parish church in 1843. It was designed by John Dobson, with a nave and aisle added in 1864, and an organ chamber and vestry constructed in 1879-80. Further additions in 1895 included a spire, choir vestry, and porch by Hicks and Charlewood. The church is constructed from coursed squared sandstone with an ashlar plinth and dressings, topped by a dark slate roof with flat stone gable copings.

Architecturally, the church features a west tower and a north-west porch, with an aisled nave and chancel predominantly in the Norman style. The three-stage tower has round-headed windows in the first stage, a blank second stage, and arched belfry openings that contain two round arches and a shared shaft. The tower is capped with a corbel table and a coped parapet adorned with octagonal corner pinnacles, leading up to an octagonal stone spire with slender gabled lucarnes. The north door is double boarded with elaborate hinges set in a moulded arch, while the west door in the south aisle is a plain round arch of two orders. The five-bay aisles feature round-headed windows, with paired windows in the north-east bay and the south aisle, which also has three low gabled tomb recesses. The chancel has two-bay aisles and a triplet of windows on the east side, all under steeply pitched roofs.

Inside, the church has painted plaster above wainscoting and a queen-post roof with painted stencilled decoration on the tie beams supported by elaborately shaped brackets. The north arcade features simple moulded capitals and slightly chamfered arches, while the lower south arcade, originally of octagonal piers, has been blocked to convert the south aisle into a parish hall. The baptistry in the tower contains a Gothic font with a granite shaft and a quatrefoil bowl. The chancel arch is two-centred, with an inner arch on corbelled paired shafts, and there is a slightly chamfered round arch leading to the Lady chapel. The painted arcaded stone reredos includes statues, and a high-quality brass communion rail commemorates the former vicar, F. Jobling.