Church Of St James

Church of St James, Shipton

A church of 12th-century origin with a tower added later in the medieval period. The chancel was rebuilt and a south porch was added in 1589 by John Lutwyche of Shipton Hall, as recorded on a brass memorial plaque in the chancel.

The church comprises a nave with lower and narrower chancel, a low west tower, and south porch. The walls are mainly of brown render over stone, with coursed siltstone and grey freestone dressings to the chancel and porch.

The chancel is a rare and well-preserved example of Elizabethan Gothic-survival work, with an embattled parapet, coped gable and diagonal east buttresses. Its window designs recall those of around 1300. The 3-light east window has intersecting tracery and hood mould. On the north side is a single cusped pointed window. In the south wall the right-hand window is 2-light with Y-tracery, and the left-hand is a single cusped pointed window. The priests' door has a Tudor head with sunk spandrels, and a studded door with strap hinges.

Early medieval fabric is visible in the nave south wall in the form of a blocked round-headed window. Other nave details are mostly 18th and 19th century. A 2-light window with plate tracery is positioned to the right of this, and on the left side of the porch is a tall cusped 19th-century gallery window carried above the eaves beneath a gable. The porch has coped gables on moulded kneelers. The round arch to the entrance has stone voussoirs and moulded imposts, with a modern iron gate.

Inside the porch, the nave south doorway is square-headed under a massive unhewn lintel and has a panel door, probably of the 18th century. In the north wall of the nave is a high round-headed door of around 1789, studded and with strap hinges, that gave access to the gallery. The north windows comprise a centrally-placed small, low cusped pointed window in place of a former north doorway and a taller cusped pointed window to the left end.

The short three-stage tower has a diagonal buttress to the south-west angle. In the lower stage is a square-headed west window in a stone surround, and a tall narrow window above it, both with diamond glazing. The short second stage has small louvered openings in the west and north faces. The later bell stage is timber-framed with offset louvered square openings, and has a pyramidal roof on oversailing eaves.

Internally, the walls are stripped of plaster, exposing a simple pointed tower arch with no enrichment and therefore not datable. The nave has a 3-bay tie-beam roof with raking struts and collar beams. The plain round 12th-century chancel arch stands on moulded imposts and is flanked by lower and narrow squints with rubble-stone arches, of uncertain date. The chancel has a 16th-century trussed rafter roof. The nave floor is laid with reclaimed medieval tiles and some re-used ledger stones, now illegible except for one dated 1800. The chancel floor is laid with 19th-century tiles and re-used ledger stones ranging in date from 1688 to 1743. In the centre of the chancel floor are 4 further ledger stones in situ, commemorating members of the Mytton family from the period 1694 to 1756.

The principal fixtures include a plain lead-lined tub font of the 12th century standing on a 19th-century octagonal base and plinth. The polygonal wooden pulpit is probably late 17th century, contemporary with a reading desk that has similar but simpler panelled decoration. The altar rails, with twisted balusters and orb finials, are of around 1700 and originally enclosed the altar on three sides but were adjusted in the 19th century to span the chancel. Plain pews of 1905 have moulded tops and simple panelled backs. Choir stalls of similar date have plain ends with carved poppy heads and simple panelled backs.

In the south wall is a painted Royal Arms of George IV or William IV, formerly fixed to the gallery. Several memorial tablets survive, the earliest being a painted armorial board to Mary Mitton (died 1640) in the chancel south wall. A hatchment in the north nave wall is to Thomas More (died 1804), whose memorial tablet is beside it. The chancel has 4 neo-classical marble wall tablets to members of the Mytton family of Shipton Hall (dates of death between 1737 and 1864, the latter by Dodson of Shrewsbury). Dodson also made the Gothic wall tablet in the chancel south wall to Thomas Mytton (died 1874). In the east window is a fragment of stained glass showing badges of Elizabeth I that formed an integral part of the 1589 rebuilding. In the nave north wall is a 19th-century window showing the Baptism of Christ.

Shipton church is first mentioned around 1110 and was probably a small two-celled church until the tower was added at some time in the medieval period, containing 3 bells by 1552. The chancel was described as a 'great ruin' in 1553 and was replaced and rebuilt at the expense of John Lutwyche of Shipton Hall in 1589. The new chancel was probably built on the ruins of the old, with openings in the same position. The south porch appears to have been part of the same works. The exterior walls were rendered by 1789. An 18th-century gallery and 17th-century pews were removed in 1905–6 when a major re-ordering took place, at which time the walls were stripped of plaster and the present pews were installed.