Church Of St James

The Church of St James is a parish church dating to the 14th century, with some earlier fabric likely incorporated into the nave walls. The nave and chancel were rebuilt in the 14th century. Later additions include a 19th-century south porch, a north vestry, and a bellcote. The church is constructed of septaria, flint rubble, Roman brick, and 14th-century yellow brick, with red plain tiled roofs.

The east wall features angle buttresses and a 19th-century east window. It incorporates 14th-century rear splays and a re-set rear arch of three cusped lights with three quatrefoils above, set within a two-centre arched head flanked by head stops. The chancel, also 19th century, contains single-light windows with scissor tracery and two-centre arched heads, each with labels and head stops. A moulded two-centre arched south doorway, similarly ornamented, sits to the west of a small, low-set single light window, also with a segmental head, label, and head stops, the splays and rear arch probably dating back to the 14th century.

The south wall of the nave is buttressed, and contains two two-light windows with pointed quatrefoils and two-centre arched heads, labeled and with head stops. A similar pair of windows appears on the north wall, along with a blocked north doorway with a comparable arch and plain label. A 19th-century south doorway leads to a gabled porch with angle buttresses and a moulded, pointed, segmental arched doorway, flanked by sidelights of three ogee lights, segmental head, label and head stops. The west wall has a restored 14th-century window of three ogee lights with tracery above, an ogee head, and a label with head stops. A small, blocked 14th-century doorway has hollow chamfered jambs and a two-centre arched head. At the gable apex sits a 19th-century stone bellcote, supported by two carved face corbels – a lion and a man – above two ogee arches, surmounted by two chamfered two-centre arches with a quatrefoil above, breaking through the pedimental head, with a bell in each arch. An ornate iron cross finial tops the structure.

Inside, the chancel features a 19th-century scissor-braced roof, with head stops to the north and south windows and to the south doorway. The circa 1880 reredos, designed and executed by Rev. E Warmington M.A., incorporates a piscina and sedilia. The sedilia are canopied, crocketed, and pinnacled, with carved bases, while the piscina is similarly ornate atop carved bases. Three central reredos panels have gabled heads and illuminated panels painted by Miss Warmington, with trefoiled side panels. The space is enclosed by a 19th-century twisted iron altar rail, and displays a two-centre arch with a moulded label and head stops to the north vestry. There is no chancel arch. The nave features a 19th-century cant roof. An octagonal pulpit with traceried panels and an octagonal stem is present, accompanied by poppy heads on the pews and a polygonal brick floor. A floor slab with indents for brasses, now framed on a wall board, depicts five kneeling boys, two kneeling girls, a woman with head-dress and dress girdle with three large buckles, tentatively dated to circa 1520. The font is octagonal with a chamfered rim and soffit, a circular stem with a moulded base and head.