Church Of Saint James The Great

The Church of St James the Great is a parish church with medieval origins, significantly altered in the 19th century and extended in modern times. The original north wall has been removed to accommodate a modern extension. The core of the building appears to date back to the late Saxon or Norman period, but it is largely from the 13th or 14th century, with numerous subsequent features. It is constructed of ironstone and granite rubble.

The church comprises a west tower, a nave with a north aisle, and a chancel. The squat west tower, of two stages, is constructed of coursed ironstone rubble, with a granite boulder course and later ashlar embattled parapet. It has a single lancet window to the west and paired lights to the bell chamber. The nave has a steeply pitched roof, and its south wall was rebuilt in 1828 and restored around 1860, featuring granite rubble with sandstone dressings. A south doorway has slender shafts and a hoodmould with foliate corbels, and there are two paired, foiled lights with quatrefoils. The eastern gable is coped, and a cross is present. The chancel, the oldest part of the building, is constructed of small pieces of coursed granite rubble, with a steeply pitched roof, an eastern coped gable, and a cross. It is narrower than the nave and has a shallow, round-arched splayed opening on the south-west. Further to the right is evidence of a blocked feature, and a 15th-century two-light square-headed window. The east window is a simply traceried light with an ogee hoodmould and fleuron, and there is a square-headed light to the north. The north aisle was largely removed during the construction of the modern extension, but sections of its east and west walls remain, dating from around 1860.

Inside, the tower arch is a late 13th-century triple-chamfered archway without capitals. The nave has three bays, with low round piers and double-chamfered arches. Victorian tracery is found in the south windows and a Victorian timbered roof covers the nave. The chancel arch is a double-chamfered archway resting on corbels. Within the chancel, two openings lead to a north chapel of 1869, and between them is a single opening that might be Anglo-Saxon or Norman: a single splayed round-arched light, incorporating fragments of an early latticed wood shutter. Two roughly shaped piscinas are located to the north and south of the altar. The font is 13th-century, featuring a plain circular bowl on a circular shaft. A high Victorian stone and marble pulpit is also present. There is significant good quality late 19th-century stained glass, particularly on the west wall, in the chancel, and in the south-east nave window, created by Ward and Hughes of London and dated 1887. Two monuments are in the chancel: one by J. Bacon junior, depicting a sentimental deathbed scene in marble and commemorating Sarah Mansfield, who died in 1813; the other is to John Mansfield, who died in 1839.