Church Of St James

Church of St James

Church, built in 1872 by architect A.W. Blomfield. The building is constructed of dressed limestone with ashlar dressings, including bands in the gable ends and internally, and is roofed with stone slate. The church is designed in an Early English and Decorated Gothic style.

The building comprises a four-bay nave, a lean-to south aisle, a two-bay chancel with a south vestry, and a north-west steeple positioned over the porch. The total cost was £1,886, with the tower, spire and bells costing a further £639. The church opened on Friday 26th April 1872. The builder was Groves of Milton under Wychwood.

The steeple has two external stages. It sits on a double-chamfered plinth and is embellished with clasping buttresses to the lower stage featuring chamfered offsets, which continue as pilaster buttresses to the belfry. The belfry has a chamfered offset with a continuous impost moulding and a corbelled eaves band. A broach spire rises above with a moulded cornice. The spire has hipped lucarnes to the cardinal faces with louvred chamfered lancet openings, finials and a continuous cill string, culminating in a finial at the apex. The belfry openings consist of two louvred trefoil-headed lights with quatrefoil plate tracery, each set in a chamfered recess with a double-chamfered shallow pointed arch. The first stage is decorated with pairs of trefoil-headed chamfered lancets to the east and west, each with decorative triangular-pattern stonework in a relieving arch above, and a pair of small chamfered lancets to the north. A pair of boarded north doors features wrought-iron strap hinges, a moulded archway and hood mould with carved foliate stops. Cast-iron bootscrapers are present, and a clock sits in front of the belfry openings to the north.

The interior of the porch features a chamfered rear arch to the door, stone side benches beneath windows with chamfered square surrounds and central chamfered corbel projections between them with broach stops. A boarded door to the nave has strap hinges and a continuously-chamfered and ovolo-moulded archway. The floor is laid with encaustic tiles and the ceiling is a chamfered cross-beamed design.

The nave exterior has a chamfered plinth and buttresses with chamfered offsets. The stone eaves are chamfered and the gable ends are parapeted with finials at the apices and a cross to the west. The left-hand buttress on the north side has a gabled top with a blind trefoiled circular panel and finial. The windows on this side consist of 2 trefoil-headed lights with quatrefoils in the tracery, hollow-chamfered reveals and returned hood moulds. The west end features a central buttress with chamfered offsets and a gabled top with a blind trefoiled circular panel and finial. Two tall windows here contain 2 trefoil-headed lights with cusped tracery, chamfered reveals and hood moulds with carved foliate stops.

The south aisle has a chamfered plinth, flush cill band and chamfered stone eaves. Its windows are of two and three lights featuring squat trefoil-headed lancet lights. The west window has 2 trefoil-headed lights with cusped plate tracery and a hood mould with carved foliate stops.

The chancel is built on a chamfered plinth, double to the east. It has buttresses with chamfered offsets, which are clasping to the east, a cill string, chamfered stone eaves and a parapeted gable end with coping and a finial at the apex, probably a truncated cross. The north-west window contains 2 chamfered lancet lights with a carved trefoiled chamfered circular panel in the tympanum and a round relieving arch. The east window has 5 stepped trefoil-headed lights with quatrefoils and cinquefoil in the tracery, chamfered reveals and a hood mould with carved foliate stops.

The vestry features a chamfered plinth and a parapeted gable to the front with coping and an integral stone stack at the apex consisting of a chamfered offset to an octagonal shaft with a cap. The south window contains 2 trefoil-headed lights with a quatrefoil in the tracery, chamfered reveals and a returned hood mould. A trefoil-headed chamfered lancet is positioned to the east, with a boarded door to its left featuring a chamfered Caernarvon arch and a segmental relieving arch.

The interior is finished in dressed stone with ashlar bands. The four-bay nave roof features arched-braced collar trusses springing from stone corbels, intermediate smaller arched-braced collar trusses also springing from stone corbels higher up, and trussed rafters between with collars. A moulded wooden wall plate, ashlar pieces and three purlins run along each side. The south aisle arcade comprises circular piers with moulded bases and capitals (semi-circular end piers) and double-chamfered arches. The nave windows and door feature chamfered rear arches, while the aisle windows have chamfered wooden lintels. The chancel arch is double-chamfered with a continuous outer sunk chamfer and half-octagonal piers with moulded bases and capitals.

The two-bay chancel roof (one long bay and one short bay) has two arched-braced collar trusses with moulded tie-stubs on wooden brackets, an intermediate arched-braced truss to the east, trussed rafters between with collars, a moulded wooden wall plate, ashlar pieces and a single purlin. The ashlar dado has a cill string, stepped up to the east. The east window features clustered nook shafts with moulded bases and capitals, a chamfered rear arch and a hood mould with carved foliate stops. The north window has clustered nook shafts and a chamfered trefoil rear arch. A continuous double-chamfered vestry/organ arch has moulded imposts to the outer chamfer. Stone sedilia to the south feature a hollow-chamfered arched head and 2 seats divided by stone arm-rests. A double-chamfered arched aumbry to the north has the inner chamfer dying into responds and a projecting cill. The lean-to aisle roof features purlins and arched braced trusses. A double-chamfered archway at the east end of the aisle has the inner chamfer resting on moulded brackets and the outer chamfer dying into responds. The vestry contains a segmental-arched corner fireplace and a chamfered trefoil-arched piscina to the south with a projecting scalloped bowl.

The church contains mainly late 19th-century fittings. The marble reredos of 1872 features a cross set in mosaic in a central arch with flanking lozenge panels containing carved figures, a bracketed cill and a moulded top. A brass plaque on the south wall of the nave reads: "TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND/IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF MARY/KATHERINE WIFE OF R. LOWBRIDGE/BAKER VICAR OF THIS PARISH/THIS REREDOS IS PLACED BY MANY/FRIENDS WHO LOVED HER DEEPLY/A.D. 1872". The altar is furnished with wrought-iron rails with a wooden rail. Plain choir stalls feature wrought-iron frontals. An organ with painted pipes is installed. The oak chancel screen, dated 1932, is built on a stone base and features 3:3 lights with pierced cinquefoil heads and a moulded top rail with cresting. Its base is inscribed: "(left-hand side) TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN MEMORY OF HENRIETTA MARIA. WIFE OF REV. ROBERT LOWBRIDGE BAKER/(right-hand side) DIED 25 FEBRUARY 1932 AND HER DAUGHTER MARJORIE EMILY WHO DIED 23 FEBRUARY 1932". A polygonal wooden pulpit features pierced quatrefoils. A wrought-iron lectern and plain pews are also present. The font at the west end of the nave has a square base and a circular stem with four marble shafts, each with a moulded base and carved capital. The bowl is square with billet ornament to the sides, a circular lead bowl and a circular iron-bound wooden cover. Encaustic tiles are laid in the chancel. Stained glass appears in the east window and north windows, along with some aisle windows. The Faith, Hope and Charity north windows are a memorial to Reverend Lowbridge Baker.

Monuments include a date tablet in memory of William Buckingham (died 1914-18 war), carved by Levi Dore, the village craftsman who also designed and built the war memorial.

Reverend Robert Lowbridge Baker was the first vicar of Ramsden and gave the tower, spire and bells in memory of his first wife, who died on the eve of the opening of the church.