Church Of St James

Church of St James

The Church of St James at Audlem is a Grade I listed building of major architectural importance. It is primarily Perpendicular in style but incorporates late 13th-century and early 14th-century remains, with significant 19th-century additions and alterations carried out in 1855-6 by the architects Lynam and Rickman.

The church is built of red sandstone ashlar with a lead roof. It comprises an aisled nave, chancel, and a north-western tower with a south-western porch.

The tower dominates the composition. Its western face features angle buttresses with offsets. The lower level has a two-light window with trefoil-headed lights and a quatrefoil to the apex, topped by a hood mould. Above this are two quatrefoil lights. A 19th-century clockface with an iron outer ring is set above, with the stone centre bearing an inscription reading "J Hervey / J Gouldborne S". The tower's girth diminishes above this point via an offset. The two-light belfry opening has a casement moulding surround with two louvred lights featuring trefoil heads and a quatrefoil to the apex, crowned by a hood mould. Gargoyles project from the angles, and the tower is finished with a battlemented parapet decorated with crocketed pinnacles at the corners. The north face has no windows at the lower level but features two lancet windows at clockface level, with belfry details matching the western face. The eastern and southern faces adjoin the nave and project only at belfry level and above, mirroring the western and northern elevations.

The nave's western end displays a 4-centred doorway to the inner body, above which is a 19th-century 5-light window with plate tracery and a hood mould. The gable above has a battlemented parapet. To the right stands a buttress with offsets, adjacent to the blank end wall of the southern aisle.

The south side of the nave is divided into six bays by buttresses with offsets. The second bay from the left features a superimposed 15th- or 16th-century gabled porch with diagonal buttresses. The porch contains a central doorway with double-chamfered surround and hood mould, flanked on either side by 3-light cusped windows with flat heads and Tudor hood moulds. A battlemented parapet crowns the porch. Within the porch is a late 13th-century doorway with pilasters on either side supporting capitals, the left capital carved with a mask. The arch features roll moulding with fillet and is topped by a hood mould with figurehead label stops.

The aisle windows flanking the porch are 4-light cusped windows of early Perpendicular style, each with a hood mould. These replace earlier windows of less width set lower in the wall, as the stonework reveals. A battlemented parapet runs above.

The clerestory above contains 12 windows arranged in pairs corresponding with the aisle bays. Each window has two cinquefoil-headed lights with a quatrefoil to the apex, paired hood moulds, and a battlemented parapet.

The northern aisle contains a vestry of 1885-6 and three bays to the left, each with 2 cusped lights with quatrefoils above. The aisle roof was originally of higher pitch, as evidenced by marks visible in the stonework of the tower's east face. The northern clerestory comprises 8 lights arranged in pairs.

The eastern end of the southern aisle features a 19th-century 4-light Perpendicular window with cusped heads and a hood mould. The north aisle has a 5-light Perpendicular window with a square head, which appears to have been curtailed when the aisle roof gable was lowered.

The chancel's southern side includes a priest's door of Decorated form dating to the early 14th century, with an ogee head and hood mould. To the left and above are 3-light Perpendicular windows. The chancel was extended in 1885-6 on its right side and features a blank southern wall. The northern chancel wall is also blank. The eastern end contains a reset early Perpendicular window of 5 cusped lights with panel tracery, set in a 4-centred arch.

The interior displays a southern nave arcade of 6 arches with octagonal piers, splayed caps, and hood moulds. A pier adjoining the western wall has a capital set in its lower body, indicating the original height of the arcade's springing. The northern arcade of 4 arches is similar and includes the springing of an earlier arch visible in the lower walling of the tower, demonstrating that the nave was originally less wide.

The clerestory lights feature hollow-chamfered surrounds. The wooden panelled nave roof is supported by heavily moulded beams, which probably originally bore more ornamental bosses.

An octagonal pulpit of 17th-century date stands in the nave, though it was altered in the 19th century and heavily cleaned.

The chancel contains a wall memorial by B. Bromfield of Liverpool commemorating Nathaniel Wettenhall of Hankelow, who died in 1778. The memorial is executed in white, grey, and yellow marble with an aedicule surround and a coat of arms below in a rococo cartouche.