Church Of St James

Church of St James

This is a parish church of medieval origins, substantially built in the 13th century with significant additions and alterations spanning the 14th and 15th centuries. The north transept was constructed in 1889–90 to designs by W. S. Weatherley. The church underwent repairs in 1938 and restoration in 1913.

The building is constructed of dressed coursed rubble and ashlar with some half timbering, covered with plain tile and lead roofs. The composition comprises a crossing tower with spire, transepts, nave, south porch and chancel. The west nave and east chancel have coped gables with single ridge crosses, whilst the chancel has a parapet. A single chimney stack rises from the north wall of the north transept.

The 13th-century tower stands in two stages above the transepts, with clasping buttresses to the south side and north-east. It is topped by a broach spire with two tiers of four lucarnes, the lower tier featuring two lights. The north side of the tower has a single small arched light and a single rectangular light; the south side has a single small arched light. The north, south and east sides each have five tie plates, whilst the west side has four. The four arched bell chamber openings each contain two arched lights, with that on the west side being smaller.

The west nave has clasping buttresses and a shallow chamfered plinth, featuring a single 13th-century window with five pointed arched lights. The north wall, on a similar plinth, has a double chamfered round arched doorway with imposts and hood mould. To the left is a single 13th-century round arched light with hood mould. The clerestory contains three 19th-century windows, each with three cinquefoil arched lights beneath a flat arch and a continuous sill band. In the re-entrant angle between transept and nave is a 19th-century stair turret of two stages, the upper stage being set back. It has a Caernarvon arched doorway with a single rectangular light above.

The west wall of the north transept features a chamfered round arched doorway with imposts and continuous hood mould forming a sill band to the windows in the north and east walls. The north wall contains a single arched window with three pointed arched lights surmounted by two quatrefoils; a similar two-light window appears in the east wall.

The chancel sits on a low plinth with a moulded band extending over it. The north wall has a round arched doorway with chamfered jambs and moulded arch, with a continuous hood mould over forming a sill band to all windows in the chancel, broken at the south side by a doorway. To the left are three 13th-century lancets, with three gargoyles distributed around this elevation. The east wall has clasping buttresses and a single arched 13th-century window with four pointed arched lights surmounted by four crude quatrefoils. The south chancel has two 13th-century lancets with hood moulds, that on the left decorated with nail head. To the left is a doorway with moulded surround. Further left is a single similar lancet with plain hood mould, and on the far left a single arched 14th-century window with two cinquefoil arched lights and a single transom. Two gargoyles are present on this wall.

The south wall of the transept has a single window with three pointed arched lights, with a single small arched 19th-century light above. The west wall has a chamfered round arched 19th-century doorway with imposts and hood mould.

The south nave has a restored 15th-century arched three-light window with cusped tracery. To the left is a single 13th-century lancet. Further left stands the gabled and buttressed porch, with an entrance featuring half timbering above. The inner doorway is a 13th-century moulded arch with remains of a single order of colonnettes and a hood mould. Further left is a single 13th-century lancet. The clerestory corresponds to that on the north.

The interior features tower, chancel, nave and transept arches all of 13th-century date with triple chamfering, keeled responds and moulded capitals decorated with nail head on the south side. The chancel has a continuous sill band broken in places by doorways. The south wall contains an arched piscina with a 19th-century pedestal piscina to the right. The north wall has an aumbry; the east wall has two rectangular niches beneath the window. The south transept has a small piscina in the east wall with a rectangular niche above and a single similar smaller niche in the south wall.

A 14th-century octagonal font stands in the church, its pedestal decorated with quatrefoil panels and the bowl with blind tracery. Seven 17th-century benches and a 17th-century oak chest are present. Above the nave–tower arch is a plaster Royal Arms dated 1683, with the arch flanked by single plaster heraldic shields. The nave roof contains 15th-century moulded beams with carved bosses. On the south wall of the nave is a lead plaque dated 1701 listing the churchwardens.

The church contains several memorials. Those to John Bosworth (1832) and Elizabeth Cox (1833) are with inscription tablets in the form of a sarcophagus. A memorial to John Powell (1777) by Hull is topped with decorative volutes. A further memorial to Anne Bagdale (1768) has an inscription tablet flanked by fluted pilasters with dosserets decorated with fleuron, a cornice and a decorative urn above. In the north chancel is a memorial to Frances Willoughbie (1606), featuring an arched niche supported on pilaster strips decorated with strapwork, containing a kneeling female figure and a lectern. A further memorial to William and Susanna Willougby (1636) surmounts an inscription tablet with two kneeling figures flanked by decorative panelled pilasters supporting an ogee arch and finial, with a shield within the arch.