Church of St James is a Grade II listed building in the Burnley local planning authority area, England. First listed on 10 March 1987. Church.
Church of St James
- WRENN ID
- high-render-briar
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Burnley
- Constituency
- Burnley MP: Oliver Ryan (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 10 March 1987
- Type
- Church
- Address
- Church of St James, Church Street, Briercliffe
- OS grid reference
- SD 867 349
- Coordinates
- 53.81069, -2.20285
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St James is a church built in 1840, likely designed by Edmund Sharpe. It is constructed of squared sandstone with a stone slate roof and is designed in the Early English style. The church features a nave with a short chancel and a west steeple. The exterior has a three-span roof, which contrasts with the single vessel interior. On the south side, there are pilaster buttresses creating five bays, while the north side has four bays, with the westernmost bay containing small lancets that light the staircases. The other bays have tall coupled lancets. The east end has a stepped triple lancet for the chancel, with a single lancet on each side, the north side terminating at the fourth bay. The west end features a two-stage tower, partly surrounded by pseudo-aisles with gables. The tower has a two-centred arched west door, two lancets above, gables on each side, and an octagonal drum and belfry with a lancet on each side, topped with a short octagonal spire.
Inside, the church has a single vessel with a flat ceiling supported by very slim iron columns that rise through panelled galleries on three sides. The galleries are accessed by quarter-turn staircases with stick balusters and ramped handrails. There is a chamfered two-centred chancel arch and a matching arch leading to the organ house on the south side. The interior features a brass double candelabra attached to the frieze of the gallery, pitch pine pews on the ground floor, and box pews in the gallery. This church is an unusually unaltered example of an early 19th-century church.
Local climate
Church of St James sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,250 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 93% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 87% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 58 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 97% of listed buildings. Of these, 34 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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- No EPC on record for this property
- Sale history — 2 transactions since 1996
- 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
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