Church Of St James

Church of St James

This is a former Benedictine priory, now a parish church, founded from Croyland in 1114. The building dates from the late 12th century through to the 16th century, with a major restoration undertaken in 1871 by James Fowler in Norman style. It is constructed from limestone ashlar, coursed limestone rubble, and red brick.

The church comprises a western tower, clerestoried nave, aisles, and a north porch. The tower dates from the 15th century and is built in ashlar with stepped corner buttresses, a bell moulded plinth, and a battlemented parapet. The belfry openings are of three lights with hollow chamfered surrounds. The west door is continuously moulded and stands above a large five-light window with transomed panel tracery. Above this is a canopied niche with a statue, and on the north side stands a blank niche.

The north aisle is a 16th-century addition in brick, featuring moulded ashlar coping and dressings. It has stepped buttresses between six three-light windows on the north side and single similar windows to the west end. The windows include alternating panel-traced 15th-century examples with 16th-century untransomed windows, and a small triangular-headed doorway.

The north porch is gabled, constructed from coursed rubble, ashlar, and brick. It contains a reset 13th-century outer doorway with annular reveals and capitals, while the inner doorway is 14th-century with an ogee head set within a taller 12th-century surround. The original 14th-century door survives with panel-traced woodwork.

The tall 14th-century clerestory contains eight three-light windows with cusped, reticulated tracery. Above runs a 12th-century looped corbel table, reset and interspersed with gargoyles and a brick parapet. The east wall displays the clustered shafts of the 12th-century crossing with scalloped capitals, while a 19th-century five-light east window with panel tracery has been inserted. The south clerestory matches the north in design. The south aisle is an 1871 rebuilding in ashlar, featuring a pointed window to the east end, a round-headed doorway, five round-headed windows, and three lancets on the south side. The west window has two lights with curvilinear tracery.

Interior

The nave and chancel are undivided, comprising six Norman bays to the east and three early 13th-century bays to the west. The arcade is supported on massive round piers with cruciform scalloped capitals. The arches feature stops and rolls with variations; the easternmost arch on the south side retains later zigzag ornament. Hood moulds are terminated with beast head stops. The western arches also have circular pillars with triple responds showing stiff leaf capitals and triple chamfered pointed heads. A tall 15th-century tower arch is double chamfered with octagonal capitals. The late 12th-century west crossing arch displays roll mouldings and zigzag, continued on the hood mould.

The 15th-century nave roof features moulded principals supported on carved corbels retaining demi figures and original bosses. The north aisle roof is of similar date and pattern, while the south aisle has a 19th-century roof. The third pier from the east on the north side was remade square to provide access to the rood loft.

Fifteenth-century aisle screens feature boldly cusped panel-traced bays. On the north side of the chancel stands a pillar piscina with a scalloped base, circular shaft, and octagonal capital. In the south aisle is a reset 13th-century triple shaft base, now serving as a shelf. The vestry retains reset 15th-century panels on its wall. At the east end of the south aisle are 12th-century shafts belonging to the vanished transept.

Fittings

The church contains a chest dated 1590, iron-bound with three locks. The font is a fine 15th-century octagonal example on three steps, with two kneeling stones and a splayed base. It features blank trefoil panels to the sides and stem, with quatrefoils above. The contemporary wooden cover is particularly splendid, pierced and pinnacled with radiating tracried windows supporting a central lantern over an open vault and enriched with much crocketing.