Parish Church Of St James

The Parish Church of St. James is a church that features a late medieval tower and north chapel, with a nave built in 1817 and a chancel added between 1869 and 1870. It is constructed from sandstone, with the nave made of dressed gritstone and has slate roofs. The west tower is in the Perpendicular style and consists of four stages, featuring a chamfered plinth, diagonal buttresses, and a southeast stair turret. The tower has a low Tudor-arched west doorway with a hollowed surround, a restored three-light window under a hoodmould with shield stops, a clock face, and two-light louvred belfry windows that display Perpendicular tracery and hoodmoulds. There are chamfered looplights on the north and south sides, along with gargoyles beneath a dripcourse that runs around the entire structure. The tower is topped with an embattled parapet and crocketed corner pinnacles.

The nave is short and broad, extending to the north of the tower and consisting of four bays. It features a gabled porch on the south side at the first bay and large three-light arched windows with transoms and intersecting tracery. The two-bay chancel has square-headed two-light windows and a large five-light east window with Perpendicular tracery. To the north of the chancel is a raised and restored chapel, which includes a Tudor-arched three-light window with a hollow-moulded reveal and cusped lights, along with a blank arch above it. There is also a square-headed window on the north side with three similar cusped lights and hollow spandrels, although a 19th-century vestry covers most of this wall. Against the east wall of the chapel are three medieval gravestones with incised crosses.

Inside, the church has a wide auditorium created by incorporating the former aisle in the early 19th century, which was previously galleried. At the east end, there are large but unequal two-centred arches leading to the chapel and chancel, featuring two orders of moulding and semi-octagonal responds. The interior includes three large queen-post roof trusses with arch bracing to the collars and much ornamental openwork. A brass chandelier from 1792, which has two tiers of arms, hangs inside, along with a small stone tub font. Above the south door is a shouldered panel painted with the arms of George III, and on the tower wall, there are two 18th-century shouldered panels listing benefactions to the poor and the school.