Church Of The Holy Innocents And St James

The Church of the Holy Innocents and St James is a church built between 1870 and 1872 by architects Price and Linklater. It is constructed from coursed yellow sandstone rubble with red sandstone dressings and features a steeply-pitched slate roof adorned with a diaper pattern of green slates. The church is designed in the Gothic style reminiscent of around 1200, with all openings featuring 2-centred arches and cusped heads.

The layout includes a nave with north and south aisles, a south-west porch, a south-east steeple, and an apsidal-ended chancel that has a south chapel and a north vestry. The free-standing square tower consists of four stages, with angle buttresses, corner pinnacles, and an octagonal spire that includes lucarnes. The south doorway of the tower features set-in shafts and a moulded head decorated with ball-flower ornament. The second stage has a 2-light window, the third stage displays circular clock faces, and the top stage has coupled 2-light belfry windows along with corbel-tables.

The five-bay aisles are supported by buttresses and have 2-light windows with quatrefoils in their heads. The gabled porch on the south aisle features a doorway with a double-chamfered surround and set-in shafts. The nave includes a clerestory with two single-light windows in each bay and a tripartite west window set within a blank arch, which has a transomed 3-stage 2-light center and 2-stage side lights. The three-bay chancel, which has a buttressed apse, features 2-light windows with multifoils in their heads, topped by linked crocketed gablets. The parallel two-bay south chapel is designed in a similar style. The interior has not been inspected. The church forms a group with the former school to the east, which is now the Queen of Hearts Public House.