Church Of St James

Church of St James, Bushey High Street, Bushey

A parish church with early to mid 13th-century chancel, 15th-century tower, and substantial 19th-century restoration and extension. The church was restored and extended in 1871 by Sir Gilbert Scott, with further additions in 1897.

The exterior is built in knapped flint with stone rubble to the tower and ashlar dressings throughout, with tiled roofs. The original plan comprised a three-bay chancel and five-bay nave. North and south aisles, a north porch, organ bay and vestry were all added in the 19th century. The chancel has three 19th-century lancet windows to the east within two-stage diagonal buttresses. To the north are three lancets in chamfered surrounds with hood moulds. To the south the vestry and organ bay feature two trefoiled lights with a square head and an eastern gable, one light to the south, and a lean-to addition with an eastern entrance and two two-light windows to the south.

The south aisle has four three-light windows with foiled heads to each light and pointed overall heads with hood moulds, separated by two-stage buttresses. The west bay contains a two-light window with curvilinear tracery and diagonal buttresses mark the return angles. The west return has a large four-light window with curvilinear tracery. The north aisle is shorter and narrower, with two two-light traceried windows towards the east, a diagonal buttress to the return with a similar window, and comparable windows in the west bays of the aisle and nave.

The north porch stands at the west end, built on a timber frame with flint and stone base. It has timber double doors with a pointed arched head, foiled heads to glazed and unglazed panels on the returns, and sham close studding in the gable with elaborate bargeboards. A 15th-century moulded frame surrounds the door into the north aisle. The aisles, nave, chancel and vestry are all separately roofed, with the chancel slightly lower than the nave.

The tower rises in three stages with a pointed arched west entrance containing a 15th-century plank door with strap hinges, set within a hollow moulded surround and stopped hood mould. Above is a restored 16th-century window with two foiled lights in a hollow moulded square head. A string course sits below small 19th-century lancets in the second stage. The bell stage has two trefoil-headed openings with square heads to each side, a moulded cornice and embattled parapet. Four-stage diagonal buttresses flank the tower, and a northeast corner stair turret with slit windows transitions from quadrilateral to semi-octagonal form in its upper stage. The east face of the second stage carries a clock.

The interior retains 13th-century blank triple arcades to the north and south chancel walls, with Purbeck marble shafts with moulded caps and bases supporting chamfered pointed arches with labels. The south chancel wall features a lancet window to the east, a half lancet over the vestry door at centre, and remains of a late 13th-century three-light window now opening to the organ chamber to the west. A 15th-century tower arch, part rebuilt, separates the nave from the chancel. The 19th-century north and south aisle arcades comprise five bays to the south and three to the north (arranged as two and one), following an earlier model. Each has octagonal piers with moulded caps and bases supporting two chamfered orders in pointed arches.

A tympanum over a cambered tie beam occupies the position of the chancel arch. The nave side carries the Royal Arms of Queen Anne with a diaper surround, while the chancel side displays a 17th-century painting of the Divine Glory supported by putti and flanking reclining figures. The nave roof, of late 14th or early 15th-century date, employs alternate hammer beam and tie beam trusses with arched braces, hollow chamfered wind braces, moulded tie beams, purlins, collars and wall plates. The chancel roof retains early moulded wall plates supporting 19th-century braced collar trusses with painted decoration to the east. The aisles have 19th-century arched braced roofs following the nave model.

An aumbry stands at the east end of the north chancel wall. The 19th-century Gothic altar table features figures painted by students of Hubert von Herkomer. An early 17th-century octagonal pulpit with tester is panelled and richly carved, with steps carrying barley sugar balusters. A brass candelabra in the chancel was given in 1727. An ornate organ case and decorated pipes date to 1871. Carved double doors from 1906 provide access from the south aisle to the vestry. A carved timber cross at the west end of the south aisle was made by Hubert von Herkomer. A marble font dates to 1874, and the floor is laid in patterned encaustic tiles. Seventeenth-century floor slab tombs survive in the vestry.

The glass includes some 17th-century fragments. The east window dates to 1871 by Powell and Sons, and the west window is by Wooldridge.