Church Of St James

Church of St James

Church built in 1832 by Francis Bedford, commissioned by the Oakes family of Riddings House. The building is constructed of ashlar laid in alternating thick and thin courses with ashlar dressings and slate roofs with stone copings to the gables and ridge crosses.

The church comprises a three and a half bay nave with an enclosed western tower, a single bay chancel, a small south porch now used as a chapel, and a north vestry.

The west elevation features a central three-stage tower with stepped full-height angle buttresses on the western corners, each with gableted tops. The main entrance has a deep chamfered doorcase with returned hood and double plank doors. To either side of the tower, the nave displays paired blind lancets beneath continuous hoodmoulds and stepped angle buttresses. Above the doorcase is a lancet window with returned hoodmould, followed above by a blind stage with moulded string-courses at base and top. The bell stage contains tall paired louvred lancets with continuous hoodmoulds on each side, topped by a moulded cornice, embattled parapets, and a recessed octagonal stone spire decorated with carved stone friezes and a ball finial.

The north and south elevations of the nave contain tall paired lancets with returned hoodmoulds in each bay, separated by stepped buttresses that rise above the parapets with capped tops. A moulded eaves band and blocking course with moulded copings run along these elevations. The western half bay has a two-light plate tracery window with a lancet above it, both with returned hoodmoulds, on the south side; the north side is blank.

The chancel is narrower than the nave. A late 19th-century porch in the re-entrant angle to the south features a double chamfered pointed east door below a hoodmould with foliage stops, and paired lancets to the side. This porch partly obscures a blind eastern lancet to the nave with returned hoodmould. The south wall of the chancel displays three lancets with hoodmoulds and a continuous sill band. The north chancel wall includes a canted vestry to the west with a triple lancet window and a Caernarvon arched doorcase, beneath which is a polygonal bay to the east with lancets to the angle wall and a lapped stone roof. The east elevation of the chancel has triple stepped lancets with hoodmoulds and a continuous sill band, with the central lancet significantly larger than the flanking ones.

Internally, the church has a canted western gallery with trefoil-headed blind panelling on fluted iron columns, which houses a large organ. A tall double chamfered chancel arch with soffit on moulded corbels sits below a returned hoodmould and is flanked by tall pointed blind recesses. The southern recess extends the full height and features a chamfered pointed doorcase at its base; the northern recess is shorter and adjoins a pair of pointed doorcases with a central column, all below returned hoodmoulds. The chancel connects to the north vestry via a Caernarvon arched door, and the nave connects to the tower via a pointed arched doorcase, which in turn links to the gallery stairs via another pointed arch. All nave windows have window seats at their base.

The nave is roofed with a queen strut roof, while the chancel has arched braced trusses. The interior furnishings include plain choir stalls, nave pews, and an altar, complemented by an elaborate marble reredos spanning the full width of the chancel with three crocketed gablets at the centre. Iron and brass altar rails and a stone and iron rood screen traverse the chancel arch, featuring a cusped arcade at the base with marble columns and ironwork ogee-headed arcade above. An octagonal pulpit stands on a moulded stone stem with a timber top decorated with cusped dagger motifs to the sides. The font is also octagonal, fashioned from polished Hopton Wood marble with raised shields on each side of the bowl and a carved timber cover.

The church contains two early 19th-century slate and white marble wall memorials in the nave, along with numerous late 19th and early 20th-century brass memorials. Most windows feature stained glass; that in the east is early 19th-century in date, while the remainder are mostly late 19th-century.