Parish Church Of St James

The parish church of St James dates to the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, with substantial alterations in 1911. The building is constructed of coursed rubble, a mix of greensand and ironstone, with ashlar dressings, and has clay tile roofs. It comprises a chancel, a north vestry and organ chamber, a nave, north and south aisles, a south porch, and a west tower.

The chancel has 14th-century origins but was rebuilt in 1911 and features a three-light pointed-arched east window, two two-light pointed-arched windows on the south side, and a small doorway also on the south side. The north vestry and organ chamber, also dating to 1911, have square-headed mullioned windows and a pointed-arched north door. The nave, originally from the 13th century and reworked in the 15th, was also substantially roofed in 1911. It includes a three-bay south arcade and a three-bay north arcade, both with pointed arches (the northern ones being taller). A 15th-century pointed arch connects to the chancel, and blocked doorways of a former rood loft staircase are visible in the southeast angle. The north aisle, reworked in 1911, contains two three-light windows with segmental heads flanking a pointed-arched doorway. The south aisle, dating primarily to the 13th and 14th centuries, also underwent 1911 alterations and similarly features two three-light windows flanking a 14th-century pointed-arched doorway. A 14th-century holy water stoup is set into the external south wall to the east of the doorway. The south porch, from 1911, is gabled with a pointed archway and square-headed two-light windows. The porch, chancel, and nave have stone coping to the gables, while the aisles and vestry have plain parapets. The west tower, from the 15th century, is three stages high, with diagonal buttresses to the west, an octagonal stair turret to the southeast, and an embattled parapet. It has a pointed-arched door in a square surround, above which is a three-light pointed-arched window. The bell stage has paired two-light pointed-arched windows on all sides.

Inside, all the roofs date from 1911. A plain medieval cylindrical font sits in the nave. A 14th-century niche with foliate spandrels is found on the east wall of the south aisle. The north aisle contains a chest tomb to John Thompson, who died in 1597, and his wife Dorothea, made of alabaster and marble. The tomb has a pair of effigies under a studded canopy supported by five columns, with carved cartouches to the base and canopy crest. In the south aisle are polychrome marble wall monuments to Robert Slingsby (died 1634), Edmund Williamson (died 1737), and Talbot Williamson (died 1765), the latter featuring an urn and obelisk.