Church Of St James

Church of St James, Cradley

A parish church of 12th-century origin with a substantial tower dating to around 1200. The tower was heightened in the 15th century. The main body of the church was extensively restored in the 19th century: the chancel was restored in 1868 by George Gilbert Scott, and in 1869 A.E. Perkins, an architect of Worcester, restored the nave and added a north aisle with vestry. A south porch was added in 1893.

The church is built of local red sandstone rubble with freestone dressings and a tile roof. It comprises a rectangular nave with a lower and narrower chancel, a west tower, south porch, and north aisle with vestry.

The three-stage tower is Transitional work of around 1200 in its lower stages. It has 19th-century diagonal west buttresses and an angle south-east buttress. The south doorway has a cyclopean arch, and the second stage features a round-headed window to the south and a pointed window to the north. Set into the north wall is a fragment of masonry with crockets, probably Anglo-Saxon in date. The west side is altered, with a three-light 19th-century Perpendicular west window. Above this, the second stage has a small cusped window under a square label. Clock faces on the north and south sides were installed as a 1914-1918 war memorial. The freestone upper stage, with diagonal buttresses, dates to the 15th century and features two-light bell openings with louvres and an embattled parapet.

The nave south doorway is late 12th century, with nook shafts displaying scallop capitals and an arch decorated with roll mould and chevrons. It stands in a porch added in 1893. The remainder of the church is 19th-century work in the Decorated style. The nave has three two-light windows and a single-light window to the left of the porch. In the chancel are two two-light windows on the south and north sides, and a south priest's door. The east window of three stepped lights sits beneath a single pointed hood mould. Either side of it are re-set grotesque heads from a 12th-century corbel table. Two similar corbels—a face-puller and an animal head—are re-set below the south side of the east verge. The north aisle has two-light windows and a vestry beneath an outshut roof with square-headed windows and a west door under a shouldered lintel.

The interior of the Transitional tower has responds of three clustered shafts with scalloped capitals and a pointed stepped arch. The north and south interior walls of the tower base are timber-framed with square plaster panels. The nave and aisle walls display exposed hammer-dressed stone. The six-bay nave arcade features piers with four clustered shafts and double-chamfered arches, both executed in banded masonry with alternating red and cream courses. The nave and chancel have crown-post roofs on corbelled brackets, while the aisle has a trussed-rafter roof. The division between nave and chancel is marked by arched braces below the westernmost tie beam of the chancel roof. The floors are 19th-century tiles, with raised wood floors below the pews. The sanctuary contains encaustic tiles and re-set grave slabs, one dated 1776.

The chancel screen has a panel dado, open-arcaded main lights, and a moulded crest. The central doorway has low doors with blind Gothic panelling. The tower screen features cusped arcading over a boarded dado, with a central cusped arch. In the chancel, the communion rail is brass on iron standards. The font, given by Thomas Bisse and dated 1722, has a rustic Baroque stem with square bowl and Gothic concave cover. The 19th-century polygonal pulpit features Gothic panels and a foliage cornice on a panelled stone base. The nave benches are plain, dating to 1869, while the choir stalls have ends with poppy heads, some of which are 16th century. Memorials are few; notable examples include a neo-classical tablet to Richard Chambers (died 1776) and a wall monument to Daniel Price (date illegible) showing a mourner leaning on a stele, now damaged. Beneath the tower is a board dated 1795 listing fines for bellringers' misdemeanours. The east window displays the Resurrection in bright colours, possibly by Frederick Preedy. The chancel north window shows St Francis, post-1933. The nave south-east window depicts St James and Joseph of Arimathea, post-1864.

In the churchyard stands a cross, the base and part of the shaft of which have been converted into a sundial with copper plate and gnomon, all restored in 1887. A timber-framed lych gate of late medieval date also stands in the churchyard. Both are separately listed buildings.