Church of St James and boundary wall

This Gothic Revival church was built in 1869 to designs by Thomas Nicholson, the Hereford Diocesan Architect, with Mr Gough of Bishop's Castle as builder. The church suffered extensive fire damage in 1901 and was subsequently restored by Nicholson & Hartree, reopening in 1903. A vestry was added in 1959 by Scriven, Powell and James, and further late 20th-century alterations provided toilets at the north-west corner.

Materials

The external walls are constructed of rock-faced Three Elms Quarry sandstone laid in broken courses, with ashlar Bath stone used for dressings including windows, quoins, and buttresses. Internally, the walls are ashlar Bath stone with bands of blue stone. The roof is covered in Whitland Abbey slate.

Plan and Setting

The church has a cruciform plan oriented north-south with the chancel to the north. The combined length of nave and chancel measures approximately 34 metres, the width of the nave and aisle approximately 16 metres east to west, and the transepts extend approximately 22.5 metres east to west. The building occupies a prominent corner plot at the junction of Green Street with Vicarage Road.

The porch projects eastwards from the south end of the east aisle. The 1959 vestry stands north of the west transept, with the late 20th-century WC extension at the north-west corner. The eastern boundary to Green Street is marked by a low stone coped wall with wooden gates at both ends. The southern boundary along Vicarage Road features an open metal fence with hedge planting and a wooden gate opposite the nave door. The western boundary is formed by the red brick wall shared with the neighbouring school, while the northern boundary consists of a red brick wall adjoining early 21st-century housing on the former General Hospital site.

Exterior

A Bath stone string course runs continuously around the church at the level of the window sills, rising to form hood moulds over doorways. All windows feature Geometric tracery and are dressed in Bath stone, with hood moulds supported on corbels carved as human heads. Each corner has buttresses, with additional buttresses flanking the large north, south and transept windows.

The chancel roof has a slightly lower ridge height than the nave. A bellcote sits at the apex of the north gable end of the chancel roof, with a Latin cross on the chancel's north gable ridge and a Celtic cross on the nave's south gable ridge. The east and west elevations of the nave have clerestories of circular hexafoil windows above the lean-to aisle roofs.

The east aisle contains two two-lancet windows to the nave and one to the chancel. The east end of the transept is lit by a four-lancet window with two quatrefoils and a hexafoil above. The porch at the south end of the east elevation marks the site of the proposed tower. It is entered through a foliate design wrought-iron gate set within a Bath stone cusped arch supported by columns with foliate capitals. A single door to the sanctuary is located at the north end of the east elevation.

The north elevation is dominated by a tall window of three lancets with three hexafoils above. The west elevation has three two-lancet windows to the nave, while the west transept is lit by a four-lancet window with two quatrefoils and a hexafoil above. The late 20th-century WC addition stands north of the west transept on the west elevation.

The south elevation facing Vicarage Road features a central nave door with elaborate iron strapwork and a large three-lancet window with a cinquefoil above. Both south ends of the aisles have two-lancet windows with trefoils above.

Interior

The walls are of ashlar Bath stone. The aisles are separated from the nave by four-bay arcades formed by circular columns with carved foliage capitals supporting polychromatic arches. A further polychromatic arch in the crossing separates the chancel from the transept. This chancel arch springs from corbels on the nave-facing sides of the northern crossing piers, carved as the paired heads of the four evangelists with red marble shafts rising from them. Other arches in the crossing and transept are smaller and simpler, in monochrome Bath stone, some springing from corbels decorated with carved foliage. The east end of the transept serves as a side chapel dedicated to Reverend Frederick Lansdell, Vicar of St James's from 1910 to 1933.

Floors

The nave and aisle floors are carpeted over wooden parquet blocks, with small red rectangular tiles laid in herringbone pattern marking walkways between pews. The choir is raised two steps above the nave, with encaustic tiles from Godwin of Lugwardine to its centre and floorboards to the sides. These encaustic tiles continue up a further three steps from the choir to the altar and cover the entire sanctuary. The porch floor has red and black quarry tiles laid in a diamond pattern.

Memorials and Stained Glass

A First World War memorial plaque inscribed with 51 names stands behind the font at the east end of the transept. A memorial tablet with the 36 names of parishioners who died in the Second World War is mounted on the east aisle wall, immediately north of the porch entrance.

The north window by A F Eridge and James Hogan of Powell of Whitefriars is a 1934 memorial to those who fell in the First World War, showing various images on the theme of sacrifice. A pair of stained glass windows in the west aisle depicts Matthew 15:21-28 'O woman, great is thy faith', in memory of Mary Ann Powell who died in 1881. A second pair in the east aisle depicts 'Jesus the Good Shepherd' and 'Jesus Light of the World' (after Holman Hunt). Both pairs are by Heaton, Butler and Bayne, though it is uncertain whether they survived the fire or are replacements.

The stained glass window in the east transept chapel is a memorial to Reverend Frederick Lansdell depicting the Parable of the Sower. Dating to 1951, it is by Archibald Davies (1877-1953) of the Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts.

There are 14 stone and brass memorial plaques to former clergy and parishioners. Notable examples include the brass plaque to Reverend John Venn next to the pulpit and the metal tablet in the east transept to Reverend Lansdell. A stone laid by the Lord Bishop of Hereford in 1902 to commemorate the rebuilding of the church is located at the south end of the nave.

Fixtures and Fittings

The reredos by Groome and Bettington dates to 1913 and was donated in memory of Reverend John Houlder, who died in office in 1912. It extends along the entire north wall behind the altar with plain panels, except for five panels directly behind the altar where roses are carved within arched niches.

The wooden communion rail in the sanctuary is supported by wrought iron pillars with gilded details. A simpler timber rail serves the Lansdell Chapel. The Lansdell Chapel and organ vestry are separated by a wooden screen with vertical openings containing decorated tracery in their upper parts.

The organ stands in the north section of the east aisle east of the choir, with its pipes opposite on the west side of the choir. Dating to the early 20th century, it is by Nicholson and Company of Worcester and retains handles and bellows for manual blowing.

The pulpit and lectern are timber with carved Gothic decoration, assumed to date from the early 20th century. The stone font is square with columns to its corners supporting a band of foliage decoration, sitting on an octagonal base. Pews are plain pine wood, except those in the choir which have some tracery decoration and poppy-head finials. The doors are fitted with elaborately decorated strap ironmongery.

Subsidiary Features

A low coped stone wall forms the boundary to Green Street, with gates at both north and south ends. Both gate openings have a taller buttressed pier to the north but are missing their corresponding southern piers.