Church Of St James

The Church of St James is a medieval church dating from around 1300, restored in 1843 by A.E. Perkins. It is constructed from coursed rubble blue lias with sandstone dressings and a tile roof.

The church is laid out with a nave and chancel under a single roof, alongside a south porch and a west bellcote. The exterior is in a simple Gothic style, with buttresses including diagonal and earlier south-east angle buttresses. The south doorway has a continuous moulding, and a blocked north doorway is similar. A timber-framed porch has an arched entrance with cusping in the spandrels, and blind cusped arches to the barge boards. The windows are two-light with Y-tracery, with two in the south and north walls, one in the west wall, and a three-light east window with intersecting tracery. The gabled west bellcote has a single ogee cusped opening for a bell.

Inside, the three-bay roof features queen posts strengthened by arched braces, supported on brackets. There is no structural division between the nave and chancel. The walls are plastered, and the floors are 19th-century tiles, except for raised wood floors beneath the benches. The porch is laid with 15th-century tiles.

Notable features include a 14th-century octagonal font with cusped arches on a round stem. There is a neo-classical tablet to John Davidson (died 1837), three 19th-century brass plaques, and a metal Royal Arms in relief, which is Georgian from the early 19th century. The benches with poppy heads, the Gothic communion rail with open arcading, and the later stone polygonal pulpit with blind Gothic panels all date from the 1843 restoration. A south nave window depicting SS James and Peter, likely by Clayton and Bell, dates from around 1900.

The church dates from around 1300 and was restored in 1843, when the bellcote was added, along with the benches.

The church is designated at Grade II for its status as a small rural church containing medieval fabric, including original floor tiles, and for retaining external architectural character and internal details, such as the benches, which are typical of the simple Gothic style popular in the 1840s.