Church Of St James

Church of St James

Parish church with 15th-century origins. The nave and chancel were rebuilt in 1864, then altered and enlarged in 1887 by W J Hopkins. The church is constructed of ashlar with a plain tiled roof behind parapets, which have cross finials at the gable ends.

The building comprises a west tower, a 3-bay nave with south aisle, a 3-bay chancel with south chapel, a north vestry, and an organ chamber. The architectural style is Decorated.

The west tower dates to the 15th century and has been much restored. It is set in 2 stages with strings below the silence chamber and parapet. Diagonal buttresses with offsets stand at the west end. The west doorway serves as the main entrance and is pointed arched with 2 nookshafts on each side, moulded capitals and bases, and a late 19th-century square hood with foliated label stops. Blind quatrefoil tracery fills the spandrels above. A 4-light window with late 15th-century tracery sits higher, with a cambered head and hood mould bearing foliated label stops. The belfry stage has 17th-century square-headed 2-light louvred openings. Both north and south elevations contain a small rectangular opening to the silence chamber immediately above the lower string. The embattled parapet originally had corner pinnacles, which were removed in the early 20th century.

The nave was rebuilt in 1864. Its north elevation has a 2-light window at the west end with hood mould and foliated label stops, and to its left is a 15th-century cusped lancet. The north vestry protrudes across the easternmost bay.

The south aisle and chapel were added in 1887, replacing a former south transept. They share a separate roof running parallel to the nave and the 2 westernmost bays of the chancel. This roof has a parapet above a string with moulded coping and paired blind cusped pointed arches at the corners. Buttresses have offsets and gablets containing pointed-lobed trefoils at each end and at the division between aisle and chapel. All windows are 2-lights with hood moulds and foliated label stops, with a string course beneath sill level. The south elevation has 2 windows flanking a 15th-century cusped lancet, while the chapel is lit by a single window at a slightly higher level. Large windows occupy each gable end.

The chancel was built in 1864 and lengthened in 1887. Its parapet matches the south aisle and chapel design, with the string continuing around well below sill level. A 3-light east window has a hood mould and short string immediately below the sill level, both with foliated stops. A loophole in the gable has a string immediately beneath. Late 19th-century cusped lancets with hood moulds and foliated label stops appear at the east end of both north and south elevations.

The north vestry and organ chamber were added in 1887. Buttresses stand at the ends, and the parapet and windows in the north and east elevations are detailed similarly to the south aisle. To the right of the north window is a narrow pointed doorway with hood mould and foliated label stops. The continuous string course terminates left of the doorway in a foliated stop. A canted bay lies in the angle between the vestry and nave, flat-roofed with a parapet pierced with a quatrefoil frieze and a central cusped lancet. Stone steps with wrought iron railings set against the bay lead into the vestry basement.

Interior

There is no chancel arch. The tower arch is round arched with 3 chamfered orders, the inner one having octagonal moulded capitals. The south arcade comprises 3 pointed arches on columns, quatrefoil-shaped in section with moulded capitals and bases. 2-bay arcades on each side at the west end of the chancel have pointed arches and a central column with foliated capital and moulded base. Late 19th-century roofs have principal rafters supported on corbels carved to form bearded faces, with cusped traceried panels above the chancel wall-plate.

The reredos consists of ornate stonework panels and inscriptions with a cusped ogee arch at the centre, marble base, nookshafts, and a relief of The Last Supper within. The late 19th-century altar table, brass altar rails, brass chancel screen, and parcloses are all present. A late 19th-century pulpit and neo-Norman font are also features. Fifteenth-century tiles are now set in the walls of the tower base. Late 19th-century misericords run along the south wall.

Memorials include two mid-19th-century examples in the south aisle to Thomas Anthony, third Viscount Southwell (died 1860), and his wife Jane (died 1853), and 2 of early 19th-century date in the tower base. Outside, on the north wall to the top left of the westernmost window, is a mid-18th-century oval wall memorial to Henry Restall (died 1740). All windows are filled with late 19th-century stained glass, with the east window by Hardman.

The church represents a complete embodiment of the pious Victorian Lord of the Manor's religious ideals, including all interior fittings.