Church Of St Philip And St James

Church of St Philip and St James

Parish church built in 1867–9 by W J Hopkins on a new site, with a spire added in 1900. The building is constructed in red sandstone ashlar with yellow sandstone tracery, tiled roofs, and parapets at the gable ends with kneelers. It is designed in the Decorated style.

The church comprises a two-bay chancel with a south chapel and north vestry, a four-bay nave with a clerestory and north and south aisles, a south porch, and a west tower.

The west tower has three stages with angled corner buttresses featuring cusped gablets. The south-west buttress is of increased width to accommodate stairs and has three slit openings. The tower is articulated by three string courses. The west doorway has a pointed archway that is deeply recessed and moulded, with the hood mould returning to continue as a string; it is flanked by nookshafts, the upper shafts now almost weathered away, bearing foliated capitals and moulded eaves. Above is a large five-light window with geometric tracery. The second stage carries a metal clockface on each elevation. Beneath the belfry stage is an imbricated frieze, above which runs a diaper frieze and moulded cornice; between these are paired louvred two-light openings, each with nookshafts bearing foliated capitals and moulded bases, the hood mould returning as a string. The broach spire has corner pinnacles and four two-light lucarnes. Above these is a quatrefoil frieze between strings, followed by eight gablets with pointed-lobed trefoil openings and an additional string above. The spire is crowned with a finial and weathercock.

The nave has traceried flying buttresses at the bay divisions, terminating in outer buttresses surmounted by pinnacles. It features two-light windows and round clerestorey windows with varied tracery. Cusped lancets light the aisles and the clerestorey at the west end of the north and south elevations, whilst a three-light window lights the west elevation of the aisles.

The south porch is gabled with a parapet and kneelers. It has corner angled buttresses with offsets. The doorway has a pointed arch within a deeply moulded and recessed surround with a hood mould and foliated label stops. At window height on either side is an arcade of three cusped pointed arches supported on short columns with moulded capitals and bases.

The chancel has corner buttresses with offsets and gablets, and two string courses, the lower one continuing around the side elevations. The three-light east window has a hood mould with foliated label stops. At the east end of the north and south elevations are two-light windows with hood moulds and foliated label stops.

The south chapel has a catslide roof, end buttresses with offsets, a large two-light south window set partly within a central gable, and paired pointed-arch windows in the east elevation.

The north vestry also has a catslide roof, a tall chimney, a corner buttress with offsets, and an outshut to the east. It features a two-light north window and a pointed-arched doorway at the west end, with three cusped lancets in the east elevation.

Interior

The church interior contains five pointed stone diaphragm arches rising on long shafts terminating on moulded corbels. Additional stone pointed arches in the aisles have inner spandrels pierced with quatrefoils. A cusped pointed chancel arch, also pierced with quatrefoils, rises from foliated corbels. The four-bay arcades to the aisles comprise pointed arches on columns with foliated capitals and moulded bases.

The chancel roof has hammerbeam trusses with pierced, cusped decoration on foliated corbels. Above the wall-plate is an elaborate traceried timber arcade. At the lower end of the chancel, large pointed archways lead into the chapel to the south and contain the organ to the north; above the northern archway is a small pointed doorway into the vestry.

The reredos is by R Boulton, executed in alabaster and marble, and depicts a Crucifixion scene beneath a highly ornate vaulted canopy surmounted by angels.

The octagonal stone font is by Forsyth in the Butterfield style, with a base surrounded by eight marble columns. The bowl is inlaid with ornamental tiling and features much carved decoration including figure reliefs.

The pulpit is of stone and marble with tile inlay, and bears carved figures beneath a gabled canopy.

Memorials

Beneath the tower is a monument to Edward Hill (died 1616) and an early 18th-century memorial to Edward and Anne Bull; Anne Bull provided the main endowment for the village school. In the south aisle is a cartouche with fruit and flower surround and putto head to John Pardoe (died 1680); also memorials to John Evett (died 1657), Richard Harrison (died 1795, by W Stephens, decorated with an urn and coat of arms), and one other late 18th-century memorial and an early 19th-century memorial. The north aisle contains two late 18th-century and three mid-19th-century memorials, one of which is to the scientist Sir Charles Bell.

Glass

The east window contains late 19th-century stained glass, and the east window of the chapel contains 20th-century stained glass.

Historical context

The former parish church occupied a site approximately 300 yards north-east of the present building. It was replaced by an aisleless structure around 1830, which was in turn demolished to allow the erection of the present church.