Church Of St James

The Church of St James is a church built in 1780, which was enlarged and had a tower added in 1827, with further alterations made in the late 19th century. It is constructed from watershot coursed sandstone with rusticated quoins and has a slate roof. The church features a nave with full-height aisles and a west tower. The embattled tower consists of three unequal stages, each slightly set back, and includes small diagonal west buttresses. The west doorway is double-chamfered and round-headed, with round-headed openings featuring Y-tracery: one window above the door, one on each of the three exposed sides at the second level, and one belfry louvre on each side. There are three clock faces below the belfry, and the pinnacles were removed in 1951. The seven-bay aisles, with the two easternmost added in 1827, are two storeys high, and all windows are round-headed with imposts and keystones. There is a small gabled porch at the second bay on each side. The east end has a large two-centred arched five-light window with a transom and traceried head, dating from 1866.

Inside, the church has a full-length auditorium with colonnades of octagonal columns that rise through a three-sided raked gallery featuring a panelled front from 1878. The nave has a pointed wagon roof, while the aisles have flat ceilings. A low double-chamfered tower arch, which survives from a 16th-century building, is present, along with three large hatchments above it. The chancel is located in the two easternmost bays and is distinguished by an attached moulded arch supported on slim roll-moulded piers, a carved screen between these, and a decorated ceiling. There is a carved wooden pulpit raised on an unusually high pedestal, approached by similarly decorated stairs, created by George Shaw of Saddleworth and exhibited by him at the Great Exhibition in 1851. The organ, made by Willis of London in 1878, was enlarged and rebuilt in 1923. Additionally, there is a 16th-century octagonal font with a moulded pedestal, featuring shields on each face that bear various arms: those of donor Elizabeth Holden with initials EH, the arms of Towneley of Royle, a goat collared and belled representing the Stansfield family, a pair of shears, and a heart-shaped face with hands and legs, among others.