Church Of St James The Great

Church of St James the Great, Norton

This parish church dates from the 11th century with significant additions and alterations spanning the 13th, 15th and later centuries. The chancel is from the 11th century, the south chancel chapel was built in 1524, and a 20th-century choir vestry has been added. Major restoration work took place in 1710 and again during the 19th century.

The building is constructed of squared stone with ashlar dressings, with Welsh slate and lead roofs. It comprises a chancel, south chapel, clergy vestry and organ chamber, a nave with clerestory and aisles, a south porch, choir vestry, and a west tower.

The chancel is blank-sided with a crenellated east gable and angle buttresses. It contains a 15th-century 5-light lancet window with intersecting tracery and hoodmould. The crenellated south chancel chapel has a plinth and buttresses topped with pinnacles, two of which display coats of arms. Its south side has three flat-headed 3-light Perpendicular windows, and to the east is a 5-light pointed arch panel tracery window with hoodmould and stops. The 19th-century clergy vestry and organ chamber features angle buttresses and coped gables, with a 2-light and 3-light pointed arch panel tracery windows to the north and a matching 5-light window to the east.

The nave clerestory dates from the 15th century and has an eaves band, crenellated parapet and coped gable with a cross. Rainwater heads are dated 1710 with initials. On each side are five cusped single lancets within flat-headed surrounds. The south aisle has a plinth and crenellated parapet continuing over the south porch, with two small gabled buttresses and two 3-light windows with unusual panel tracery and hoodmoulds. The south porch has an angle buttress and a plain 13th-century style outer doorway with restored responds. Inside the porch is a 19th-century single-bay rib vault and a heavily restored 11th-century doorway with zigzag moulding. It contains six reset Norman mask corbels and six reset headstones. The unbuttressed north aisle has a coped parapet and three 19th-century Decorated 3-light pointed arch windows with hoodmoulds.

The 20th-century flat-roofed choir vestry stands at the west end with an east door and 4-light mullioned north window. The west tower, dating from the 13th century, has three stages with a moulded plinth, string courses, angle buttresses topped with pinnacles, crenellated parapet and gargoyles. The first stage has a 3-light pointed arch panel tracery window with transom and hoodmould on the west side. The second stage has a single lancet to the south with a clock above. The bell stage has 13th-century style 2-light pointed arch bell openings on each side with hoodmould.

The interior chancel has a double chamfered arch with semi-octagonal responds and crocket capitals. To its right is a double squint. The roof is a renewed arch-braced design with traceried spandrels. The north side contains a 19th-century organ chamber arch and doorway. The south side has a two-bay arcade from 1524 with an octagonal pier and chamfered, moulded arches. The south chapel has a restored gabled roof with moulded timbers and bosses, with a figure niche in the north-west corner and an ogee-headed piscina in the south-east corner. The nave has a restored low-pitched roof with arch braces and a triple chamfered tower arch with double chamfered responds and semicircular shafts. The five-bay north arcade dates from around 1200 and has round piers with octagonal capitals and double chamfered arches. The three-bay south arcade is from the 14th century and has octagonal piers and capitals with double chamfered arches and a figure niche in the east impost. The south aisle has a restored 15th-century roof with moulded timbers and bosses, with a double chamfered east arch. The north aisle has a restored lean-to roof and a similar east arch with a Perpendicular-style screen. The west end has a doorway and two reset corbels.

Fittings include a carved octagonal font from around 1220 with shafts, 19th-century stalls, benches and an octagonal wooden pulpit, and three 18th-century round-topped benefactions boards. There are four mid and late 19th-century stained glass windows plus two late 19th-century windows by Heaton, Butler & Bayne.

Memorials include an alabaster chest tomb with crocketed ogee panels, figures and life-size effigies to William Blythe dating from around 1520, two incised slabs to the Blythe family from the 15th and 16th centuries, a marble sarcophagus with crest above supported by putti to Sir William Bullock from 1666, a classical style tablet from 1741, a scroll monument with obelisk and crest above from 1766, a tablet with portrait medallion to Sir Francis Chantrey from 1841 by James Heffernan, and a tablet and memorial carillon from 1917.