Church of St James is a Grade II listed building in the Central Bedfordshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 23 January 1961. Church.
Church of St James
- WRENN ID
- lone-lintel-mint
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Central Bedfordshire
- Constituency
- Mid Bedfordshire MP: Blake Stephenson (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 23 January 1961
- Type
- Church
- Address
- Church of St James, High Street, Silsoe
- OS grid reference
- TL 082 355
- Coordinates
- 52.00822, -0.42423
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St James is a parish church built between 1829 and 1831 on the site of a medieval chapel of ease that belonged to Flitton parish. It was designed by architect Thomas Smith of Hertford, who later became the County Surveyor of Bedfordshire, and was largely funded by Lord de Grey of Wrest Park. The church is constructed from coursed ironstone with ashlar dressings and features slate roofs in a 15th-century style.
The layout includes a chancel, south vestry, nave with a clerestory, and north and south aisles, along with a west tower. The chancel has a three-light, four-centred arched east window, while the west tower features a three-light, point-arched window on its lower stage. The remaining windows are uniform, consisting of two-light designs under flat heads, all with cusped shapes and moulded dripstones. The church is topped with embattled parapets throughout, and the three-stage tower has an octagonal stair-turret at the southeast angle.
Inside, the church is rather plain, with three-bay pointed-arched arcades leading to the nave. The roofs are simple timber constructions, with the chancel roof featuring four carved angels.
Local climate
Church of St James sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 710 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 87% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 83% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 33 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 53% of listed buildings. Of these, 16 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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