Church Of St James

The Church of St James is a Gothic Revival church built in 1845 by J P Pritchett. It was endowed and founded by James Brook of Thorparch. Constructed of dressed stone with ashlar dressings, the church has a pitched slate roof with gable copings. The design follows a cruciform plan, featuring a square west tower topped with a slender, octagonal stone spire. It includes a chancel with side bays, a south porch on the south transept, and a square porch on the south side of the tower. Bay divisions are marked by buttresses, with angle buttresses topped by tall pinnacles.

The nave has four bays, while the transepts are two bays deep. The chancel is also two bays long and incorporates an arched slype with foiled window openings at its east end. A vault is located under the chancel, with an arched entrance on its east side. Single bays on either side of the chancel house a vestry and an organ chamber. The nave windows are slender, two-light lancets with cusped heads and hood moulds. Similar three-light windows illuminate the transepts. The chancel and side bays have single and two-light traceried windows with cambered heads. The east window is a three-light design with cusped lights and two quatrefoils in its head.

The two-tier tower is distinguished by diagonal buttresses and a crenellated ashlar parapet with crocketted pinnacles. The bell chamber has simple two-light openings, and the lower tier features slender, two-light lancets with a transom, all topped with hood moulds that have mask-like faces as stops.

The interior originally included galleries to the west and transepts (the north and south galleries being removed by 1853, presumably because they obscured wall memorials). These galleries were accessed from the exterior. The chancel arches and the transept arches rest on clustered responds. The roof is diagonally crossbraced with carved bosses.

Notable features include a carved oak reredos, pulpit, reading desk and eagle lecturn. A 1845 memorial to James Brook of Thorparch, by E G Physick, is a marble relief depicting a mother and child and a departing husband. An 1855 memorial to Charlotte and William Leigh Brook of Meltham Hall, also by E G Physick, is a marble relief of lamenting women. A memorial to James Brook of Thornton Lodge, who died in 1840, was created by H Mares.