Church Of St James

The Church of St James is a church dating from 1756, designed by John Carr for Mrs Elizabeth Parkin of Ravenfield Hall (now demolished). It is constructed of ashlar sandstone, with a Welsh slate roof. The church is a single-cell design with a tower rising above the west gable entrance and an apsidal east end, built in the Gothic style.

The west end features a plinth and nosed steps leading to the central entrance, flanked by pilasters with moulded plinths. The central entrance has a panelled door set within a swept-shouldered architrave with a consoled cornice, and a two-light window above in a raised, ogee-headed surround set beneath a pediment linking the pilasters. The outer bays have corner pilasters and upswept coping with an obelisk finial and scrolled brackets against the tower. The tower rises above the entrance and contains a clock in a shaped panel, with ogee-headed two-light belfry openings featuring Y-tracery and louvres. A cornice with corner obelisks runs around a concave base to a ball-finialled spirelet. The sides of the tower have cruciform slits in quatrefoil panels below the belfry stage.

The north and south sides have two-light, ogee-headed windows with shaped sills and raised, chamfered surrounds, topped by a cornice and coped parapet with corner obelisks. The apsidal east end has a canted projection with an east window similar to those on the nave, flanked by matching blind openings, and a hipped roof abutting the coped east gable.

Inside, a 1806 plaque in the lobby commemorates the church’s construction by Mrs Elizabeth Parkin in 1756. A staircase leads to a west gallery, featuring a wreathed handrail and turned wooden balusters. Fielded panelling adorns the nave's dado, gallery door and gallery balustrade; the gallery balustrade also has ogee-headed panels on the uprights, and a twisted-baluster communion rail is present. Later fittings are also visible. The apsidal interior is flanked by plaster reliefs of draped urns in the style of Carr. Monuments on the south wall include a flat-obelisk wall monument to Eliz. Parkin (died 1766), and several 18th and 19th century urns belonging to the Bosville and Osborne families. On the north wall is a panel by Fisher of York to Thos. Bosville (died 1771) and others, featuring a pelican on a sarcophagus, alongside a monument to George Westbie (died 1685), which is an Ionic aedicule with a broken segmental pediment. Hatchments and the arms of George III are displayed over the west gallery.