Church Of St James The Greater

The Church of St James the Greater is a building of group value, constructed in 1861 by J.L. Pearson. It is built of dressed stone with a plain tiled roof, wooden gutters, ridge cresting, and a shingled spire. The church comprises a nave with a gabled south porch, a chancel with a north chapel and vestry, and a tower to the south-east with a stair turret on the north-east angle. Windows throughout are two-light and linked by cill bands. The main entrance has a planked and studded door, while the vestry door, set diagonally behind a freestanding column with a foliage capital, is on the north side.

Inside, the nave has four bays with a tiled centre aisle. The pointed chancel arch rests on marble columns with leaf capitals, and smaller, thinner marble shafts support a hood moulding. The chancel steps are paved with old tiles from a previous church, and the walls are inlaid with decorative coloured stone. The north memorial chapel features quadripartite stone rib vaulting and tiled floors, and has an east window designed by Clayton and Bell.

The church contains a stone arcaded reredos at the east end of the chancel, a triple arched sedelia on the south chancel wall, and a round wooden pulpit with rich foliage carving, lattice patterning, and arcading. A square stone font stands on four squat piers.

Notable monuments include a memorial to Emily Elizabeth Gomer (died 1872) in the north chancel chapel, featuring a recumbent stone effigy by M. Noble housed within an arched, cusped niche and multi-coloured base. A chest tomb commemorates William Gomer (died 1860) and a tomb to William Gomer (died 1895) features a recumbent male figure by Thomas Brock, with an elaborate cusped canopy on marble shafts designed by Pearson. Further brasses commemorate William Gresham (died 1579) and Marmaduke Gresham (died 1741), alongside a cartouche with a cherubs' head and shield. A tomb to Anne Wright (died 1713) is marked by a white stone, draperied cartouche. Aedicular monument to Sir John Gresham (memorial dated 1660), with a lugged inscription panel, flanking draped scrolls, a broken pediment, and a shield on scroll brackets—the scrolls are a 19th-century copy of an original—is located on the north nave wall.