Church of St James is a Grade I listed building in the Medway local planning authority area, England. First listed on 21 November 1966. A C13-C15 Church.

Church of St James

WRENN ID
keen-panel-wagtail
Grade
I
Local Planning Authority
Medway
Constituency
Rochester and Strood MP: Lauren Edwards (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
21 November 1966
Type
Church
Address
Church of St James, Cooling
OS grid reference
TQ 756 759
Coordinates
51.45528, 0.52641
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Church of St. James is a parish church that dates from the 13th to the 15th century, with some restoration work carried out in the 19th century. It features a west tower, a nave with a south porch, and a chancel with a south vestry. The building is constructed from ragstone, chalk, and flint, with some repairs done in sandstone, and has plain tiled roofs. The west tower includes diagonal buttresses and likely has a reset west window featuring cusped intersecting tracery. The nave windows are from the early 14th century and have cemented tracery, while the chancel window tracery is from the 15th century.

Inside, the chancel has six bays and six blank arches on marble shafts that spring from marble benches. These arches lead to a triple sedilia and a double piscina, both adorned with shafts and trefoils. The south vestry has walls decorated with cockle-shells. Notable fittings include a 13th-century font with a square bowl supported by five squat piers, each with trefoiled arches on its sides, an 18th-century pulpit, and six oak benches featuring poppy-heads. The church is currently cared for by the Redundant Churches Fund.

Local climate

Church of St James sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 700 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 92% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 71% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 18 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 82% of listed buildings. Of these, 9 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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