Church Of St James

The Church of St James is a building of mixed dates, from the 12th century to the 20th century. It began as a Norman single-celled structure, to which an aisle was added to the south-east end of the nave in 1802, designed by John Soane, known as the Brocas Aisle. A west tower was built in 1636, and a south porch in 1806.

The north wall has four windows; three are original, small, round-leaded lights with deep splayed rolls, and the fourth, a 15th-century replacement, contains three cusped lights with stained glass dating to around 1470. The south wall features a 14th-century window, a priest’s door, a high niche (formerly providing access to a rood screen), a low pointed arch leading to the Brocas Aisle, a filled Norman south door, a 14th-century three-light window with some stained glass, and a 15th-century moulded south door.

Inside, fittings include a 13th-century shaft piscina, a 17th-century communion rail, chancel seats designed by Temple Moore, a restored 15th-century screen, wall monuments, 16th-century benches, an 18th-century pulpit, and several important wall paintings depicting the murder of St Thomas Becket, St Christopher, two conservation crosses, and lettered texts. A Purbeck font stands on later shafts, and a west gallery from 1722 was strengthened in 1884 with Ionic piers when the organ was installed. The Brocas Aisle has a plaster vaulted ceiling, a restored Perpendicular window with Flemish glass of around 1500, brasses set into the floor, slab monuments, four hatchments, a wall monument from 1839, two Royal Coats of Arms and a large sculptured marble tomb monument to Sir Bernard Brocas (1777). The tower contains two painted prescription tablets. The nave features a plaster barrel vault with wooden ribs and panels above the chancel.

Externally, the church has a tiled roof with three dormers. The walls are flint (partly rendered) with stone dressings and buttresses. Red brickwork is used for the tower, porch, heating chamber, and the Brocas Aisle (marked with an incised “DC 1802”). The tower has thin bands dividing three stages, a crenellated parapet, coupled belfry lights, a Perpendicular west window, and a high plinth.