Church Of St James The Greater

Church of St James the Greater

A church of 13th and 14th-century date, restored in 1852–3 by the architects Broadbent and Hawley, with a 19th-century north aisle. The building is constructed in ironstone with limestone dressings and lead roofs.

The church comprises a chancel, aisled nave, south porch and west tower. The two-bay chancel features a four-light east window with Perpendicular tracery and hood mould. Two-light windows punctuate the chancel walls: the south-east window has cusped Y tracery, the south-west window has a flattened arched head with cinquefoil-headed lights, and the north-west window is a single light with chamfered round-arched head. All have hood moulds. A priests' door to the north of the chancel has wave-moulding and hood mould.

The nave is lit by a three-window clerestory comprising two-light windows with renewed Decorated tracery, flattened arched heads and hood moulds. The north aisle contains two-light windows with Decorated-style tracery (except for a single-light west window with cusped ogee-arched head), all with hood moulds. A shafted north door features a many-moulded head and hood mould. The south aisle contains a three-light window to the south-east with intersecting tracery, hood mould and label stops; a two-light window to the south-west with plate tracery featuring an upright oval at the head, hood mould and label stops; and a two-light west window with cusped tracery and hood mould. The south door, set within the porch, has two orders of shafts with fillets and a many-moulded head. The porch itself features a double-chamfered doorway and stone-coped gable.

The three-stage tower contains a lancet window to the bottom stage west, a niche to the middle stage south, and twin bell-chamber openings recessed in round-headed arches with small chamfer. The bell-chamber openings are separated by square shafts with moulded capitals and a vesica piscis to the spandrel above, with nailhead ornament to the latter and heads of openings. The tower has offset clasping buttresses, a battlemented parapet and a recessed octagonal spire with three tiers of small quatrefoil lucarnes to the cardinal directions.

Interior features include a chancel piscina with wave-moulded arch, hood mould and octagonal drain. The nave has three-bay arcades. The south arcade is 13th-century with a circular pier to the south-east (bearing nailhead ornament to its circular moulded capital), a square pier to the south-west with four demi-shafts and stiff-leaf capitals with heads to angle, a keeled east respond with nailhead ornament to capital, and a polygonal respond to the west with moulded capital. The arches are double-chamfered. The north arcade is 19th-century and copies that to the south. A triple-chamfered tower arch features keeled responds with dogtooth and nailhead ornament to capitals. The south aisle contains a piscina with many-moulded cusped arch and sexfoiled drain. Some 15th-century bench ends survive. A charity board is dated 1778. A large circular stove by Gurney with crown finial is present.

The church contains several monuments. Brass plaques commemorate Joye Elizabeth, wife of William Neale (died 1604), and John Neale (died 1606). A large limestone wall monument to Everard Digby of Holywell (died 1628) features Ionic columns on curved console brackets supporting an entablature with vine-trail frieze and obelisk finials flanking a coat of arms beneath a semicircular pediment. The columns frame an inscription panel bearing an elegiac poem. Wall monuments commemorate Christopher Dexter (died 1726) and Mathew Dexter (died 1728). Slate wall monuments record members of the Cross family from 1791–1826.