Church Of St James

Church of Saint James

This church, a Grade II listed building, stands on the west side of Stratford Road in Solihull. It comprises two distinct architectural phases that are visibly contrasted both externally and internally.

The original building was constructed in 1830-2 to designs by Robert Ebbels, a little-known architect who trained possibly under William Atkinson and practised primarily in the Wolverhampton area, though he also designed churches in Hampshire and Surrey. St James appears to have been his first known work. The chapel was built as a chapel of ease to Solihull on land given by the Lord of the Manor, the Earl of Plymouth. Plans were made in 1830 and the church was consecrated on 2 August 1832, at a cost of £1,584.

The church was substantially enlarged in 1882-3, probably by John Cotton of Birmingham (1844-1934), a Bromsgrove-based architect known for his hard-edged Early English Gothic in red brick, sometimes with contrasting patterns. His other works include Bromsgrove Big School and the Bromsgrove School of Art and Science.

Architectural Character

The building's most striking feature is its visual division into two distinct halves. The original tower and nave are rendered in pale grey (probably over brick) with slate roofs and display the spare Gothic style of the 1830s. The later east end—chancel, crossing, and transepts—is built of red brick with red tiled roofs and displays Early English style with patterned brickwork and blue brick diaper work.

The plan is notably unusual: the orientation is reversed, with the chancel at the west end rather than the east. All architectural references follow ritual (liturgical) orientation. The layout comprises a west tower with a five-bay nave, a chancel and crossing with substantial transepts, and vestries attached to the north side.

The short tower has two stages with diagonal buttresses, an embattled parapet, and uncusped lancet openings. Small square stair turrets occupy the angles, originally serving gallery stairs. Four pinnacles that once topped the parapet were removed in the mid-20th century. The main entrance is a small porch in the west bay of the south nave wall. The nave features triangular dormer lights in its roof, and its windows—uncusped lancets—are evenly divided by narrow buttresses.

The east end displays plate traceried windows with limestone dressings and blue brick diaper work in the gables. The east wall and the prominent south transept gable each feature a central two-light window with its base stepped up, flanked by lancets. The north transept has a simpler triple lancet arrangement. A small red-brick addition, probably dating to the 1990s, is attached to the nave's west side.

Interior

The interior equally demonstrates the contrast between the two building phases. The nave is rendered and painted with a dark-stained tie-beam roof of 1882-3, probably contemporary with the enlargement, featuring leafy gilded wrought-iron supports. The original 1830s north and south galleries were removed during the 19th century, and the ritual west gallery was removed in 1969.

The 1880s enlargement is constructed of exposed red brick with minimal dressings; arch mouldings are predominantly brick. In contrast to the nave, the roofs of this section have a white-painted ground. The chancel arch has no capitals but features continuous mouldings with brick cogging around the soffit. Twin arches of brick with some dressed stone insets sit between the transepts and crossing. Above these arches are pierced vesicas with tracery forming a sort of internal window in the brick walls that divide the roof spaces. Above the crossing, the roof is timbered and folded.

Fittings and Fixtures

The principal fixtures date largely from the Late Victorian period. The reredos comprises two large panels with angels flanking a central patterned panel with gilded mosaic; similar borders line the tiled east wall. This was supplied in the mid-1880s by Powell of Whitefriars, who also designed the east window in 1886. The altar is a neo-Perpendicular design in oak. The floors are laid in multi-coloured encaustic tiles.

The north transept contains stained glass of 1897, while the south transept window dates to 1901. At the centre of the crossing stands an altar on Gothic arched supports, designed by Illingworth & Partridge in 1997.

The font, a plain circular bowl of Clipsham stone on a brick plinth, dates to 1969 and was re-sited at the ritual west end in 1994. The chancel stalls and nave pews are simple but robust oak pieces with shaped bench ends, dating from 1937.

History and Alterations

The reason for the church's unusual reversed orientation remains uncertain; Ebbels's original plans show the chancel at the east end. A new ritual east end was begun in 1882, and the church reopened on 31 January 1883.

In 1969, the interior was comprehensively reordered. The altar was re-sited at true east under a Modernist baldacchino, a new font was placed under the crossing, and the main entrance was relocated to the south transept. These Modernist changes were reversed and the original orientation restored in 1994.