Parish Church Of St James

Parish Church of St James, Yarmouth

This parish church stands on the site of a medieval church that was destroyed during French raids in 1377 and 1543. The present building was largely rebuilt between 1614 and 1626, with stone pillars in the nave arcade dating from the 1540s rebuilding. Holmes Chapel was added in 1692 to contain the monument to Sir Robert Holmes, Governor of the Isle of Wight from 1667 to 1692. The top stage of the tower was added by Daniel Alexander of Maidstone in 1831, together with a west gallery and new pews.

The church is constructed of stone rubble with a slate roof, the lower three courses being stone slates. It comprises a nave of four bays with aisles, a lower chancel with south chapel, and a west tower. The west tower has its lower four stages dating from 1614, constructed of coursed stone rubble with angled buttresses on the west face. The lower stages have paired lancet windows, one bearing the date 1614, and a stilted arched doorcase with drip-mould. Other sides have cambered lancet windows. The top stage, added by Daniel Alexander in 1831 in memory of his sons Henry and William and to form a seamark, is of coursed stone rubble with a crenellated parapet and tall thin lancet of moulded yellow brick. A square stair turret rises alongside.

The north aisle has three double lancet windows and a gabled stone porch with brick kneelers and round-headed arch, with angled buttresses to the corners. The south aisle has a gable end with kneelers, three double cambered lancets, and a 19th-century semi-dormer with kneelers and an arched window with quatrefoil above and two trefoliated lights below. The west end has a cambered arched window with angled buttresses to the corner. The chancel retains 17th-century fabric but has 19th-century windows.

Holmes Chapel is of red brick with stone quoins, kneelers, plinth and an elaborate stone window surround featuring triple curved heads and a scrolled keystone.

Interior

The nave of four bays has arcades of octagonal tooled stone piers with stilted brick arches. The nave roof is canted in five sections with five tie beams. The aisle roofs have through purlins and principal rafters supported on stone corbels. An early 19th-century west organ gallery and box pews are present. A marble and stone pulpit dates from 1873, with a nearby iron bracket from 1625 bearing a 19th-century hourglass. A Coat of Arms of George I appears over the south doorway, and three hatchments to the Holmes and Rushworks families are displayed. The south aisle contains a memorial tablet to the architect Daniel Alexander, his wife and two of his sons. The aisles have a series of 18th or early 19th-century wall tablets.

The chancel has a round-headed chancel arch with a three-light cambered casement lighting the nave, and a 19th-century scissor-braced roof. The east window has six cambered lights, with two cambered lights to the side walls. The south wall displays a monument to Captain John Urry by Nollekens, erected in 1802, consisting of a wall tablet with sarcophagus and urn above, and an obelisk with shield. The north wall has a memorial to Edward Rushnorth, who died in 1817 and built Farringford in Freshwater.

Holmes Chapel has a 1692 entrance with an elaborate swan's neck pediment containing a scroll inscribed with the name Sir Thomas Holmes, pilasters and a bolection moulded architrave. The principal monument in the chapel is to Sir Robert Holmes, Governor of the Isle of Wight from 1667 to 1692. It consists of a marble statue of the governor resting against a cannon with a parchment in his right hand, set within a pink marble surround with a curved open pediment with shield, cap of state, Ionic columns and elaborate console brackets. Tradition holds that the statue was originally sculpted for and representing Louis XIV of France, but the vessel and sculptor were captured by an English ship commanded by Sir Robert Holmes, who allegedly compelled the sculptor to carve his own head on the King of France's body, though the relatively plain dress of the statue renders this account questionable. The chapel also contains a marble tablet to Henry, son of Thomas Lord Holmes, who died in 1751 in his fifth year.