Church Of St James

HARTLEBURY CP HARTLEBURY SO 87 SW 1/65 Church of St James 14.3.69 GV II*

Parish church. Fragments of c1300, tower 1587 for Bishop Sandys, rest by Thomas Rickman 1825 and 1836-7 with restoration of 1877. Sandstone ashlar, tile roof. West tower 1587 with early C19 west porch; nave with north and south aisles 1836-7; chancel 1825, north and south chapels (early C19 and 1877 respectively). West tower: three stages with crenellated parapet, string courses and diagonal buttresses; belfry (top) stage has windows of two pointed lights under a 3-centred head; on west face of tower above porch a pedimented tablet bears the arms of Bishop Sandys and the date 1587; west porch: by Rickman, two storeys with angled buttresses; large 3-light Perpendicular style window over entrance with 2-centred head. Nave and aisles: of 1836-7 by Rickman, crenellated parapet, five bays divided by stepped buttresses, the fifth bay to the west wrapping around the tower; windows of three trefoil headed lights. North chapel of 1825: four bays with single cinquefoil headed light windows under square heads with square labels, the east bay occupied by a door below a blind window. South chapel: of 1877; two bays with windows of two trefoil headed lights, east window of three ligts. Chancel: east window of four lights under 2-centred head. Interior: nave: four-bay arcade, slender sandstone piers supporting 2-centred moulded arches, plastered ribbed vaults to nave and aisles with bosses. Galleries in both aisles on cast iron columns with cinquefoil headed panels to front of gallery; 2-centred moulded arch to chancel with label, and similar, but lower arches from aisles into chapels, two-bay arcade each side of chancel, that to north with quatrefoil columns supporting 2-centred arches of two chamfered orders of c1300 but much restored, the south arcade is a copy of this of about 1877. Ceiling: ribbed barrel vault. Fittings: almost entirely late C19, font: circular with nail head ornament, the lower part C12, the upper late C19. (VCH 3, p 386; BoE pp 189 - 190; H Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600 - 1840, London 1978, p 691).

Listing NGR: SO8407470891