Church Of St James

Church of St James

This is a parish church dating mainly from the early 14th century, substantially restored between 1900 and 1920. The building is constructed of flint with ashlar dressings and features a gabled lead roof.

The plan comprises a west tower, nave, aisles, and a continuous chancel. The three-stage tower is buttressed diagonally to the west and at the angle to the east. It features a chequered flushwork base with a west door of double quadrant mouldings, a three-light Perpendicular west window with transom and hood mould, and two-light Y-plan belfry windows with cinquefoil cusping. The tower is crowned by a chequered flushwork battlemented parapet above a string course, rising to a short octagonal leaded needle spire.

The north aisle is supported by diagonal buttresses. Its west window is two-light with divergent mouchettes and a segmental window arch. The north porch features a four-centred arch below a statue niche, both with hoods; an inner wall arch to the west with a two-light cusped window; and an inner door with undercut hollow and wave mouldings. The aisle is roofed with a butt purlin roof. Windows in the remaining bays follow the west pattern, except for the last bay (the Mortimer chapel), which contains a 20th-century three-light north window and a three-light east window with cusped intersecting ogees. A blocked four-centred door with fleurons and a string course continuous with the chancel are also present.

The chancel is lit by three tall two-light windows with cinquefoil arches supporting double reticulation within larger units; hood moulds form a continuous string course. The east wall features chequered flushwork and a five-light east window divided 2-1-2, with heavily cusped arches supporting an elementary petal motif below an encircled quatrefoil vesica. Two three-light chancel south windows have convergent mouchettes with hoods forming a continuous string course, separated by an arched priest's door. The south aisle east window matches the Mortimer chapel pattern. Three stepped buttresses support the south aisle, which has early 20th-century two and three-light windows and an arched south door.

The clerestory walls are constructed of knapped chequered flushwork and contain five two-light windows on both sides; those to the west are halved by the tower.

Internally, the four-bay arcade features quatrefoil capitals between fillets on the south with moulded bases and capitals; the north arcade has similar capitals but with sunk quadrant mouldings and polygonal capitals. Double sunk quadrant arches span the bays, including the tower arch. Clerestory windows sit behind deep reveals above the piers. The nave roof comprises tie beams on arched braces dropping to head corbels with traceried spandrels, short king posts and braces to the ridge piece, and a wall plate with boxed ashlaring; the principals have been renewed. The chancel roof dates to the 18th century and features thin, false hammerbeams. Aisle roofs were renewed during the 20th-century restoration.

An early 18th-century gallery at the west end is supported on a pair of timber Doric pilasters below a metoped frieze. The second stage forms the ringing chamber. A gate with H-hinges provides access.

Furnishings include a mid-14th-century octagonal font with Kentish tracery panels, shields, and fleurons below the bowl. Part of a 15th-century painted screen survives, featuring elaborate traceried fields above a dado of foliated encircled trefoils. The rood loft stairs are blocked on the north side. Two painted consecration crosses are visible on the south wall, along with remains of wall painting depicting pilgrims approaching a shrine. A wide sculptural niche under a tripartite nodding ogee vault, cusped with crockets and finials, contains remains of painting including a good torso of an angel, probably dating to the late 14th century. Remains of a parclose screen to the south-east chapel feature petal tracery of the same period. The chapel contains a piscina under a foliated cinquefoil head and bench sedilia; jambs of chancel sedilia also remain.