Church Of St James

The Church of St James is a parish church dating back to the 14th century, largely rebuilt in 1795 for Frederick Montagu of Papplewick Hall, and restored in 1940. It is constructed of coursed and squared rubble with ashlar dressings, displaying a Gothick Revival style. The church features a moulded plinth, cornice, impost band, ramped crenellated parapet with crocketed pinnacles. Most windows are double lancets in a 13th-century style, incorporating Y tracery.

The west tower, two stages high, has a moulded string course and eaves band with four gargoyles, a crenellated pinnacled parapet, and a canted stair turret to the north-west with four lights. A chamfered casement and a lancet are positioned on the south and west sides of the first stage, respectively. The second stage has four Decorated double lancets with hood moulds and mask stops. The north side of the nave and chancel has a diagonal buttress and a single corner stack. The leaded casement is located on the west side. The south side has five lancets, and the east end features a lancet and a pedimented coped gable with a cross; a blank quatrefoil is set within the pediment. The organ chamber has a mullioned casement to the north.

The south porch has a pointed doorway with a crocketed ogee hood and tympanum inscribed "FM 1795". Above the doorway is a ramped pedimented gable with a blank quatrefoil, and similar quatrefoils are on either side. The interior contains stone benches and a plaster ceiling. A moulded doorway is present, above which is a re-set 13th-century carving and a 14th-century finial. The nave and chancel have a 1985 plaster ceiling and a 1940 panelled dado. The west end has two doors with leaded quatrefoil overlights, flanking the Arms of George III, above which is a chamfered and rebated tower arch, dating to the 14th century. A panelled gallery stands on clustered wooden columns, returning across the west end, with a double staircase incorporating turned newels and stick balusters, and a Squire's pew at the east end. A stained glass window by F. Eginton, from 1795, incorporates 15th-century fragments, and south side windows contain remnants of 15th-century stained glass. A central ogee headed recess is flanked above by single quatrefoils on the south side. The church furnishings include a 12th-century font with a broken round bowl and blind arcading on a chamfered base, a 1795 font with a moulded marble bowl on a reeded wooden stem, a 1795 square walnut pulpit with ogee headed panels, and 19th and 20th-century benches, stalls, a desk, lectern, and altar rail. An early 18th-century chip-carved chest is also present. Memorials include two large marble wall tablets with Arms, flanking pilasters, urns, and obelisks, dating to the late 18th century, dedicated to Lady Wearg and Charles Montagu. A sarcophagus-shaped wall tablet with Arms and an obelisk, also from the late 18th century, commemorates Lady Colladon. An 18th-century hatchment and a Gothick style tablet from 1845 are also present. Four incised cross slabs date from the 14th century, alongside ashlar and bronze War Memorial tablets from 1918 and 1945.