Grimsby Minster, formerly the Church of St James

Grimsby Minster, formerly the Church of St James, is a medieval parish church granted Minster status in 2010. It has origins dating to the 13th century, with 14th-century, 18th-century, 19th-century, 20th-century and 21st-century additions and alterations, including work by ecclesiastical architects Charles Ainslie, R J Withers, G F Bodley, T G Jackson and Sir Charles Nicholson.

The church is constructed of limestone ashlar beneath slate roofs, with some coursed rubble and squared stone to the transepts and nave.

The church has a cruciform plan with aisles flanking the nave, and chapels to the north and south of the chancel. A vestry and community hall adjoin the south-east corner of the building.

The church features a square central tower with a three-bay chancel, a six-bay aisled nave, and single-bay transepts to the north and south. The nave, chancel and transepts are all flanked by angle turrets with square bases, octagonal upper sections with string courses, and short stone spires.

The east end of the chancel features a deep moulded plinth with an 1882 datestone. The east façade features three tall lancet windows with nookshafts and filleted arches. Above these are three more small, stepped lancets in double-chamfered reveals with a dogtoothed string course and a pierced quatrefoil set within a coped gable. The north and south sides of the chancel have a clerestory with pilaster buttresses and single light windows set within round and pointed arches with double-chamfered reveals. Above each is a corbel-table with some head corbels.

The north Lady Chapel features a gabled roof, a chamfered plinth and buttresses. The eastern face has three stepped, two-light windows detailed with Curvilinear tracery and hoodmoulds. On the north side there are also two pointed traceried two-light windows. The Resurrection Chapel to the south incorporates a 13th-century moulded plinth and lower wall with pilaster buttresses on its east side. The remainder is 20th century. On the south side is a pointed four-light window with Perpendicular tracery. The façade also features buttresses and a chamfered plinth, with string course, a pair of square-headed four-light traceried windows, and a coped parapet with crenelated finials.

The vestry attached to the south-east of the building has a plinth, buttresses, and a pointed arched door beneath an ogee hood and square-headed windows. Above is a coped parapet. Attached to the east side of the vestry is an early 21st-century single-storey community hall.

The northern transept was rebuilt in the 19th to 20th centuries with a pointed double-chamfered door flanked by a pointed chamfered blind arch to the left and a low chamfered segmental-arched recess to the right. Above the door are a pair of pointed two-light windows with Perpendicular tracery and a continuous hoodmould. Above these are three small stepped lancet windows and a coped gable.

The southern transept is surrounded by a moulded plinth. The south side has a projecting central section with a pointed 13th-century doorway of four orders with restored shafts on the original bases, and a partly-restored arch with keeled mouldings and a dogtooth-moulded hood. Above is a string course and a wide central pointed blind arch flanked by single lancet windows, all with shafted reveals and roll-moulded arches. Above these is a small triple window with diagonally-set mullions, moulded capitals, keeled arches and hoodmoulds with dogtooth moulding. There is dogtooth-moulded coping to the gable. Both transepts have single west lancet windows with hoodmoulds and corbel tables to east and west sides with some head-corbels.

The central crossing tower has two main stages, and a pointed stair turret to the south-east angle. The lower stage has several square-headed two-light cusped windows. Each side of the main belfry level has arcades with a pair of tall pointed arched blind panels containing pointed two-light transomed louvred windows with Perpendicular tracery, sill string courses and continuous hoodmoulds. Above is a dogtooth-moulded string course, ornate parapet with a blind arcade of pointed two-light cusped panels with nine finials to each side and crocketed angle pinnacles.

The nave aisles feature 19th-century pointed three-light windows with Curvilinear tracery, separated by 19th-century buttresses with offsets and gabled caps. The south porch has a restored 13th-century doorway of three orders with triple shafts, moulded capitals and a moulded arch with fillet, keeled and dogtooth mouldings. It also features a coped gable roof and parapet. The round-headed inner door with a keyed arch and radial fanlight dates to the 18th century. The clerestory on the nave features seven irregularly spaced lancet windows, a corbel table and a coped parapet.

The central section of the western side of the church is constructed of roughly squared stone. The angle turret to the left has been largely restored, as has the round-arched doorway with keeled and filleted shafts and a roll-moulded and keeled arch beneath a brick relieving arch. The 19th-century ashlar section above has three lancet windows with narrower blind lancets between, all with shafted reveals and keeled arches. Above is a vesica window in a keeled reveal, below a dogtooth-moulded string course and coped gable.

The west entrance leads into a panelled lobby beneath an organ loft containing a mid-20th-century organ by J W Walker and Sons. The lobby leads through to the nave which features arcades of pointed roll-moulded arches with hoodmoulds and head stops on clustered piers with filleted shafts and octagonal abaci. Immediately above is a wall-passage screen to the clerestory with an irregular sequence of tall and low keeled arches on slender triple shafts with keeled and fillet mouldings. The vaulted ceiling above the nave features carved king post trusses while the aisles and transepts feature arched braces on corbels. At the east end of the north aisle is a 14th-century octagonal font with panelled sides on a 13th-century shafted base and a 18th-century font cover. The former baptistry, now used as kitchen and servery, features 17th-century wood panelling brought from Stapleton House, Doncaster. Tablets in the south aisle include those to Elizabeth Bell of 1829 by Edward Baily of London, T Williamson of 1826; and a wooden plaque to Mary Riggall of 1830.

The chancel features triple wall-shafts and pointed moulded arches on keeled and rounded shafts. The sedilia have nook-shafts and keeled arches. Around the top of the chancel is an arcaded triforium with stepped trefoiled triple arches on triple shafts. The chancel screen and altar rails are of 1926 by Sir Charles Nicholson with a reredos of 1972.

The crossing features a two-stepped plinth between tall pointed moulded arches on octagonal piers with trefoiled ogee panels. On the north-east pier is an inscription dated to 1365. The north transept has a two-bay east arcade with pointed roll-moulded arches on clustered piers and responds with keeled shafts. Set within the north-east arch is a 15th-century knight effigy of Sir Thomas Haslerton, brought from St Leonards Nunnery, Grimsby after the Dissolution. The west wall features tablets to C and A Hildyard of 1728, and George Rye of 1808 by Stimson. Above is a triforium arcade with keeled arches on alternate round and triple keeled shafts. Inserted moulded and shafted arches lead to the 1905 Lady Chapel which features windows with moulded reveals and hoodmoulds containing stained glass by L Evetts.

The south transept has a single-pointed, moulded east arch on clustered responds similar to the north transept arcade. Next to this is an inserted triple-chamfered arch to the south chapel dated 1921. The west wall features a wall tablet to Rebecca Thompson of 1729 set within a cartouche, adorned with cherubs and a winged skull. The south triforium is similar to the north transept but with alternating round and twin shafts with dogtooth moulding. The south Memorial Chapel is in the form of an arcaded passage with 4-centred arches on tall, shafted piers and a panelled and ornately plastered ceiling. The memorial chapel features panelling by Sir Charles A Nicholson with a Roll of Honour inscribed on gunmetal. A passageway leads from the south chapel to the early-21st-century community hall.