Church Of St James The Less

Church of St James the Less, Fradswell

A parish church of 13th-century origin, substantially rebuilt in 1764 by Charles Trubshaw and enlarged in 1852 by Henry Ward, with stained glass by William Wailes.

The church is built of ashlar and rock-faced local grey sandstone with hand-moulded brick and tile roofs. It comprises a nave with a lower and narrower chancel, a west tower, a wide south aisle under a separate roof, and a north-east vestry.

The two-stage tower is banded between stages and below the parapet. Its lower stage is ashlar, with an added lean-to rock-faced north-east turret. A west doorway with continuous moulding and iron gates opens below a dated tablet, with a pointed south window above. The upper stage is brick with a large pointed south window and small pointed belfry openings to the west and north faces fitted with louvres. The tower is topped with a coped brick parapet concealing a saddleback roof.

The brick nave has ashlar lower courses and three two-light Decorated windows in freestone surrounds, with a cinquefoil east window over the chancel. The Decorated three-bay buttressed south aisle features two-light south windows, and three-light east and west windows. The chancel has set-back buttresses in its east wall and a two-light Decorated east window. Its south wall contains a two-light window with plate tracery and a small lancet, with another small lancet in the north wall. The vestry has a north gable stack with two octagonal shafts.

The interior retains a narrow steeply-pointed chancel arch with simple imposts, probably of 13th-century date. The three-bay south arcade is Early English in style with piers of four clustered shafts and finely moulded arches. The roofs date from 1852 and combine arched and scissor braces on corbels. Nave walls are plastered with interior hood moulds, while the aisle and chancel retain exposed stone walls. The sanctuary is laid with encaustic tiles.

Fixtures from the 1852 enlargement include a Perpendicular font, a polygonal stone pulpit, arcaded communion rails, and simple benches. The church also contains a Hanoverian Royal Arms of 1766 and several memorial tablets, including one to Jana Cromwell (died 1672). Six windows by William Wailes date from the 1852 works.

The tower was built and the nave rebuilt in 1764, as marked by a date on the building, under the direction of Charles Trubshaw (1715–72). The church was restored and enlarged in 1852 by Henry Ward (active 1852–83), an architect of Stafford. Ward added the south aisle, vestry, and stair turret, and rebuilt the chancel, using distinctive rock-faced masonry.