Church Of St James

Church of St James, Alveston

A Church of England parish church built in 1839 by architect William Walker, with the east end added in 1876 and a twentieth-century vestry. The building is constructed of snecked stone with ashlar dressings and a tile roof with enriched crests.

The church follows a traditional plan with a two-bay chancel (incorporating a north organ loft and vestry, and south chapel) and a seven-bay nave, with a south porch and west tower. Throughout, the architectural style is Early English, expressed through a plinth, sill courses, single-chamfered windows and coped gables.

The chancel features offset angle buttresses and a gable cross. Its east window consists of five stepped lancets, with additional lancets on the north and south sides. The organ loft is distinguished by angle buttresses, a stepped triplet of lancets and gable cross, and notably lacks a sill course. The twentieth-century vestry at the re-entrant angle has straight-headed mullioned windows. The double-gabled south chapel displays two-light plate tracery windows and a nineteenth-century rainwater head, with a lateral stack.

The nave has a top cornice and splayed lancets between shallow offset buttresses, with diagonal buttresses to the west. The south porch at the centre of the south side has a double-chamfered pointed entrance with paired doors decorated with Y-tracery motif. A late twentieth-century entrance has been added to the south of the tower.

The three-stage tower is the most elaborate feature. It has gabled angle buttresses that become clasping buttresses at the upper stages. The west entrance has a triple-chamfered pointed arch with paired doors fitted with strap hinges, and above it rises a rose window. Return lancets light the first stage. The second stage contains stepped triplets of lancets beneath clock faces. The top stage features two-light plate tracery bell openings with louvres below blind heads. A top cornice and crenellated parapet with plain pinnacles complete the composition.

The interior is richly detailed. The chancel displays a richly carved arch-braced roof, an arch to the organ loft, and a trefoil-headed credence recess. A two-bay south arcade has arches that die into the jambs and chamfered square piers. Applied arcading to the east end features marble shafts and rich painting. A moulded chancel arch opens to the nave, which has a simple hammer beam roof. A late twentieth-century glazed-in narthex and gallery have been introduced, with an earlier staircase retaining turned balusters.

The fittings are significant. The chancel contains stalls with tracery to their panelled fronts, and panelling to the chapel. The altar rail has a traceried frieze on posts. The south chapel contains re-set seventeenth-century panelling. The nave features a rood screen designed in the style of Bodley and Garner, which spans the east end and incorporates entrances to the vestry and chapel. Its panels and doors have pierced tracery below open scrolly tracery panels between shafts that support a coved rood loft with vine-trail cornice and brattishing. The rood above the chancel arch comprises a crucifix with crocketing and fleurs-de-lys, flanked by figures of Our Lady and St John, with painted Latin texts to the coving. A nineteenth-century font is located in the narthex.

Several wall tablets merit attention. These include a memorial to three women who died from the effects of sleeping in a room with a coke fire in 1835–6, and two richly carved Gothic-style tablets dated 1848 and 1872. Wall paintings in the chancel include figures flanking the east window, possibly remaining from a more extensive original scheme. The nave has painting to the chancel arch and four flanking shields.

This church was built as a replacement for the original Church of St James, which stood to the north-west of the village; the chancel of that earlier building remains as a separate listed structure.