Church of St James

The Church of St James is a parish church dating back to the 12th century. The original central tower and north aisle were demolished in the 13th century to make way for a chancel and south aisle, and the church was largely rebuilt in the 14th century. The 14th-century tower and spire remain, with a complete restoration undertaken in 1859, including the rebuilding of the south porch and north aisle, and the addition of a vestry. The building is constructed of stone rubble with dressings of Barnack stone, and roofs of slate and lead.

The tower is three-storied and has four stages, featuring a moulded plinth band, an embattled parapet, and clasping buttresses at the first stage which transition to diagonal buttresses topped with 18th-century ball finials. Similar finials cap the base of the original octagonal spire, which was blown down in a hurricane in 1741. The clerestory has a range of four early 16th-century two-light windows with four-centred arches, and an 18th-century painted wooden sundial with carved Roman numerals. The south aisle windows were restored in the 19th century. Two mass dials are set into the buttresses. A wall memorial commemorates Thomas Newman, who served as church warden and died in 1715.

Inside, the nave arcades display three building periods from the 12th to the 14th centuries. A north-east circular pier from the 12th century shows two distinct phases of construction, with a capital that is half-moulded and half-scalloped. The early 16th-century nave roof is a low-pitched structure with four bays and king posts, while the south aisle roof, also from the early 16th century, has six bays. Other interior features include an early 14th-century double piscina, a modern chancel arch, a two-centred tower arch with two orders of moulding, a 17th-century deal chest, and a 17th-century oak communion table. A font originally from Denton, Cambridgeshire, was installed in 1977.