Church of St James is a Grade II listed building in the Tameside local planning authority area, England. First listed on 9 May 2003. Church.
Church of St James
- WRENN ID
- worn-joist-meadow
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Tameside
- Constituency
- Ashton-under-Lyne MP: Angela Rayner (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 9 May 2003
- Type
- Church
- Address
- Church of St James, Union Street
- OS grid reference
- SJ 941 994
- Coordinates
- 53.49147, -2.08945
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St James is a church built between 1863 and 1865 by George Shaw of Uppermill. It is constructed from course squared rock-faced stone with ashlar dressings and features slate roofs with stone-coped gables and finials. The church is designed in the Decorated style and includes buttresses and diagonal buttresses. Its layout consists of a chancel with a vestry, a north transept with an organ chamber and vestry, a south transept, a south porch, and twin west spires.
The chancel has a three-light east window and smaller windows on the sides. The north transept features cusped lancets and a triangular window above three lancets at the north end, with additional lancets on the sides. There is a gabled porch and door to the west. The nave has two-light windows on its sides, while the double-gabled south transept includes a four-light window and a lancet to the south. A small gabled south porch is also present, along with a five-light west window. The church is notable for its unusual pair of spires at the western corners of the nave, which are square at the lowest stage, transitioning to a receding ashlar broach stage, then becoming an octagonal tower with a gableted bell stage and a stone spire above.
Inside, the chancel's east side windows feature stained glass, and the chancel includes carved communion rails. The chancel roof has arch-braces to collars that rise from stone corbels, with curved and scissor braces supporting two tiers of purlins. There is a richly carved pulpit and a resited font. The nave has a hammer-beam roof with arch-braces to collars and curved struts above, along with stained glass in the nave windows and a set of pews. A memorial tablet is displayed in a carved and canopied frame. This church is distinguished by its small twin west spires and retains many fine fittings.
Local climate
Church of St James sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,040 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 84% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 76% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 43 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 84% of listed buildings. Of these, 24 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
Sign in or create a free account to unlock:
- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
Similar buildings
The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.
this building 1 similar nearby listed buildings
Nearby listed buildings
- Albion Warehouse
- Ashton-under-Lyne and District War Memorial
- Market Hall
- Gatepiers, overthrows and railings at south-west and south entrances to Ashton-under-Lyne Memorial Gardens
- K6 Telephone Kiosk Outside Market Hall
- Ashton Under Lyne Town Hall
- Careers Office That Part of the Civic Offices Which Was Formerly the Water Board Offices
- St Michael's House
- 121, Stamford Street
- Church of St Michael and All Angels