Parish Church Of St James The Great

Parish Church of St James the Great

This is a parish church of early 13th-century origin, consisting of a two-cell structure with a square-ended chancel and unaisled nave. The church became fossilized at its present size when the settlement migrated to Thorley Street. The building is constructed of flint rubble walling with limestone dressings, with steep pitched roofs restored in the 19th century and red tiling renewed in 1951.

The 12th-century south doorway was reset and features spiral fluted shafts, capitals with elementary upright leaves at the angles, chevron-ornamented arches in two orders, and a flatter arch to the tympanum. The present door is 19th-century with decorative ironwork. The simple south porch was altered after 1832. Nave walls were raised in red brick around the 17th century, and the exterior is rendered except for the two lower stages of the tower, the west end of the nave, and the south wall up to the porch.

The chancel arch has two chamfered orders with semi-octagonal responds, moulded capitals and waterholding bases, possibly dating to the late 13th century. The chancel contains a 14th-century cinquefoil piscina and triple stepped sedilia with ogee tracery in the south wall. A small trefoil piscina stands under the south-east window of the nave, and a rood stair with upper and lower doors is located in the thickened north wall at the east. Drawings by Buckler from 1832 recorded 14th-century Decorated style tracery in the south-west and higher south-east windows of the chancel and the west window, which was possibly reset in the tower in the 15th century. This tracery was renewed and the east window reconstructed by G E Pritchett in 1846.

Thirteenth-century lancet windows are positioned centrally in the north and south walls of the nave and chancel, with another lancet and a 13th-century north doorway in the chancel. Fifteenth-century two-light windows appear in the nave at the east and west ends of the south wall and at the east end of the north wall, with a 19th-century copy at the west end of the north wall.

The early 15th-century unbuttressed west tower consists of three stages with a buttressed stair projection on the south, a crenelated parapet, a slender spike, and weathercock. The tower arch is tall and 15th-century, with three moulded orders, pilastered jambs, moulded capitals and bases. An unusual small doorway to the stair features a broad chamfer and projecting fillet moulded shafts with foliated capitals. The elaborate 15th-century west doorway has a two-centred moulded arch within a square outer order and decorated spandrels under a higher label; the outer arch order and spandrels were renewed in 1976. A small stoup under a segmental head stands to the south of the door. The three-light west window has carved heads as hood mould stops. Small rectangular openings to the middle stage of the tower and two-light quatrefoil openings to the belfry appear to be unrestored 15th-century work. A 19th-century vestry was added on the north side.

The interior contains moulded arch braced timber roofs with three tiers of wind bracing. The nave roof has plain stone corbels, while the chancel roof has trefoil pierced wooden corbels, presumably installed by Pritchett in 1846. The 12th-century square font has flared sides each with five shallow blind arches and a low moulded stone base added by G G Scott, probably around 1870. Scott also designed the carved wooden pulpit, reading desk, and eight-bay low trellised wooden altar rails. A long white marble reredos with coloured marble inserts was unveiled in 1884, featuring carved and gilded panels behind the altar flanked by gabled aedicules with the Lord's Prayer and Creed on the north and Ten Commandments on the south, with carved floral panels at the sides. The chancel contains a fine series of 18th-century wall monuments. An inscription on brass to John Duke from 1606 is located under the south-east nave window.

The church has undergone significant restoration and modification. Works are recorded from 1691, 1822, and 1834. Major restorations were carried out by G E Pritchett in 1846 and by Lewis Vulliamy in 1854-55. Fittings by G G Scott date to probably around 1870, and the reredos by J Day dates to 1884.

The church stands on a moated site at the centre of the shrunken village of Thorley, positioned on high ground and forming a focal point in the landscape. It represents a 13th-century church preserved by the migration of the village to Thorley Street. The 17th-century stocks and whipping post noted in the churchyard were removed for safekeeping to Cemetery Lodge Museum, Bishops Stortford in 1980.