Church of St James

The Church of St James is a church constructed between 1839 and 1842, with a chancel extension added in 1877. It was designed by J. B. and W. Atkinson. The church is built of dressed sandstone with a Welsh slate roof. It comprises a west tower, a wide four-bay nave with a south porch, and a taller, narrower single-bay chancel with a south vestry and a north organ chamber, all in a Gothic Revival style characterized by lancet windows.

The west tower has an offset plinth, hollow-edged angle buttresses with gablets rising as pilasters with shafted arrises, a double-chamfered south door with a hoodmould, and a tall second stage with west and south clocks in deeply-chamfered recesses with hoodmoulds. The belfry has louvred three-light openings with shafts, moulded arches, and linked hoodmoulds. A corbelled cornice sits below the parapet, which features blind quatrefoils and eight bases where pinnacles once stood (these were removed in 1939).

The nave has a chamfered plinth and buttresses with gablets at angles and between bays. The flat-roofed porch, located in bay two, features a hooded arch and spandrel quatrefoils. A circular window above the porch has cusped radial tracery. Stepped three-light windows are in the other bays, all beneath continuous round-arched hoodmoulds with carved stops. A corbel table leads to the coped ashlar parapet with gable copings.

The chancel has a lean-to south vestry, with a shouldered-headed door to the right of a two-light window with a hoodmould. Hollow-edged angle buttresses with gablets flank the east window, which is of five stepped lights divided by shafts. The coped gable has a cinquefoiled opening and an apex cross.

The interior features a treble-chamfered tower arch with a hoodmould returning at floral stops to cover the nave windows. There is a tall, moulded chancel arch and a pointed arch leading into the organ chamber. The nave has queen-post trusses, and the chancel has a painted panelled ceiling. Stained glass is incorporated into the east window (dated 1877) and the west window (dated 1889). A Royal Coat of Arms dated 1776 is on the north wall of the nave, and a bronze memorial to those who died in 1914-18 is on the south wall.