Church of St James

The Church of St James is a parish church dating to the 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, and 19th centuries. It is constructed of coursed squared sandstone with sandstone dressings, and has roofs hidden behind plain and battlemented parapets. The church includes a west tower, a clerestoried nave and chancel under a single roof, a south aisle and porch, and a north vestry.

The two-stage west tower is divided by a chamfered string course with diagonal buttresses to the west and angle to the east. The south side of the tower features a large circular clock face in a recessed surround and a small rectangular window below. A three-light window with cusped lancet lights under a four-centred arch is set into the west side. There are a number of small rectangular openings, with two-light bell openings in each direction featuring plain lancet lights with mullions rising from the apex of the lancets. A tall battlemented parapet is topped with four obelisk pinnacles. The north side has a 19th-century vestry with plain three-light mullion windows and a doorway with a chamfered surround. The north side of the nave and chancel has two buttresses and three two-light mullion windows under flat arches. A tall three-light east window with bar tracery incorporates a piece of walling built into the centre light. The south side of the chancel has a two-light mullion window and a small angled single light window.

The south aisle has a cross window to the east and two plain two-light recessed mullion windows to the south. A gabled south porch has moulded copings, plain kneelers and a four-centred arched doorway with hollow moulding. It contains raised and fielded panelled doors. A single lancet window is located at the west end of the south aisle, and the clerestory has three two-light recessed and chamfered mullion windows.

Inside, a low three-bay arcade has circular piers and capitals with double-chamfered arches. A double-chamfered tower arch has an inner order on moulded capitals. A diagonal passage leads from the south aisle into the chancel. A trefoiled piscina is in the south aisle, and a square aumbry recess is in the chancel’s south wall. A tall, unmoulded octagonal font is also present.

Monuments include an alabaster effigy of Joan Comyn from the mid-14th century, and an incised alabaster slab commemorating W Kendall and his wife (+1500) at the west end of the south aisle. On the north wall of the chancel is a wall monument to Henry Kendall and his wife (+1627), depicting large kneeling figures facing each other over a prayer desk, with kneeling children below. Re-used 16th-century linenfold panelling from Ashby-de-la-Zouch castle serves as the dado behind the altar. Raised and fielded panelling in the vestry is also said to have originated from Ashby.