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

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

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

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