Church Of St James

The Church of St James dates largely from the late 12th century, with significant additions and alterations in the 14th century and again in the late 15th century. An early 13th-century west tower was also added. The church is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with larger blocks of ironstone, with ashlar dressings; the chancel has a gabled stone slate roof, while the nave has a Welsh slate roof. It consists of a chancel, aisled nave, and a west tower.

The two-bay chancel features a mid-19th century Decorated-style east and south window, a lancet and trefoiled three-light window to the north. The north side of the nave includes two offset buttresses, a late 13th-century two-light trefoil-headed window set in an early 13th-century blocked arch, a 15th-century cinquefoiled two-light clerestory window, a blocked 17th-century chamfered Tudor-arched doorway, and two adjacent 15th-century two-light transomed, cinquefoiled windows. The south aisle has a label mould over an early 14th-century three-light trefoiled window, a 15th-century two-light cinquefoiled window, an early 14th-century trefoiled lancet, and a 14th-century two-light Decorated west window. A gabled mid-19th century south porch incorporates a 13th-century lancet and a 14th-century sexfoiled light as side lights, with a moulded 14th-century pointed south door. The west tower, dating from the early to mid-13th century, has small corner buttresses, a 14th-century hollow-moulded west door, pointed lancets, two-light round-headed belfry windows, and a crenellated parapet constructed around 1860.

Inside, a c.1907 alabaster reredos and an early 14th-century Decorated piscina are notable features. The late 12th-century pointed and roll-moulded chancel arch has a carved star-in-square pattern on its hood mould and trumpet-scalloped respond to the east. The late 12th-century three-bay nave arcade has pointed arches and beaded capitals on the central bay, with an early 14th-century bay to the west. Remnants of the rood stairs remain, alongside a 15th-century traceried and panelled screen, and a partial rood loft, which leads to a south chapel. The chapel contains an early 14th-century ogee-headed piscina and an organ case from 1903 by Kitchen of Winchester, featuring Gothic pinnacles and reused late 17th-century balusters and pew backs. A late 17th-century polygonal pulpit and pews showcase Jacobean-style carvings on their panels. A 13th-century double-chamfered tower arch is also present.

Memorials include an 18th-century hatchment, 19th-century wall tablets to the Cottrell-Dormer family, an architectural frame around an 18th-century monument erected c.1758 by Charles Cottrell-Dormer, and kneeling figures of John Dormer (d.1581) and his wife, brought from Steeple Barton Church in 1851 and reset in a niche in the south chapel. A memorial tablet for Justina Dormer, d.1627, is located in the south aisle; 17th and 18th-century memorial slabs include portraits of Robert Grovelier, Rector, d.1720, and Reverend R. Burton, d.1730. Stained glass includes late 19th-century work; the west window of the south aisle incorporates 16th and 17th-century glass from Sesswell's Barton, originally on the site of Barton Abbey, and commemorates General James Dormer, who died in 1742. The church’s dedication to St Germanus suggests an early connection to Christianity.