Roman Catholic Church of St James the Less is a Grade II listed building in the Rossendale local planning authority area, England. First listed on 7 June 1971. Church.
Roman Catholic Church of St James the Less
- WRENN ID
- woven-tallow-sienna
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Rossendale
- Constituency
- Rossendale and Darwen MP: Andy MacNae (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 7 June 1971
- Type
- Church
- Address
- Roman Catholic Church of St James the Less, Burnley Road
- OS grid reference
- SD 810 235
- Coordinates
- 53.70813, -2.28819
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Roman Catholic Church of St James the Less, built in 1845 and attributed to Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, is constructed of sandstone random rubble and features a steeply-pitched slate roof with large gable copings. The church includes a nave, a small north-west tower with a pyramidal top, and a chancel with side offices, all designed in a simple Early English style. The gable faces the road.
The three-stage tower incorporates a porch with angle buttresses and a slightly projecting gabled porch that has a moulded arched doorway with shafts and a hoodmould featuring figured stops. Above the door is a niche containing a statue, and the gable coping is adorned with carved stops. The second stage of the tower has single-light windows, while the set-back top stage features plate-traceried 2-light belfry louvres and a corbel table with figured corners, along with a lean-to stair turret at the rear.
The west gable of the nave boasts a large triple lancet window flanked by single lancets, with a wheel window above. The buttressed five-bay nave contains a lancet in each bay, except for the second bay on the south side, which has a gabled porch with a moulded arched doorway and hoodmould with figured stops. The fourth and fifth bays have a modern office attached. The two-bay chancel has a triple lancet east window and a circular window above containing three trefoils. Attached to the south side is a vestry with a triple lancet window and a very tall gable chimney. The interior of the church is very simple.
Local climate
Roman Catholic Church of St James the Less sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,200 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 91% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 86% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 56 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 96% of listed buildings. Of these, 33 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 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
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