Church Of St James

Church of St James

Church. Rebuilt 1819-21 by John Kent of Southampton and Joseph Hannaford of Christchurch in simplified Gothic style, broadly Perpendicular. Renovated in 1893 when re-seated. Built of Purbeck ashlar with slate roofs.

The building comprises a sanctuary with vestibule either side housing staircases to the gallery, an aisled nave, and a west tower flanked by vestry wings. A single-bay projection to the east end houses the sanctuary and flanking vestibules, all under one roof.

The sanctuary has a 5-light east window with chamfered surround extending well below the bottom of the present window, a 4-centred head with hoodmould, and Perpendicular-style tracery probably of 1897. Doorways to the north and south lead to vestibules which have 4-panel doors with pointed heads to the main panels, overlights with timber Y-tracery, 4-centred heads and hoodmoulds. Above each door is a 2-light window with timber tracery, 4-centred head and hoodmould.

The nave has 5-bay aisles under one roof with two tiers of 3-light windows to north and south, all with chamfered surrounds, 4-centred heads and hoodmoulds. The windows have hollow-chamfered wood tracery with quatrefoils to the spandrels. Two tiers of 2-light windows to the west end of the aisles have similar surrounds, Y-tracery with quatrefoils to the heads and hoodmoulds. Offset buttresses occur between bays and diagonal offset buttresses at the angles.

The 3-stage tower is built clear of the body of the church with a short link to the nave incorporating a newel stair either side—that to the south leading down to a heating chamber, that to the north serving the tower. The tower has a large west doorway approached by two stone steps with chamfered surround, 2-centred head and hoodmould. Gothic panelled double-leaf doors and a leaded overlight are fitted, with an original iron lamp in a bracket above. The middle stage has tall 2-light windows with Y-tracery and end hoodmoulds. Clock faces above the windows have moulded stone surrounds and convex painted iron faces. Bell-chamber openings to the top stage have similar tracery and hoodmoulds. Diagonal offset buttresses, two string courses and a battlemented parapet decorate the tower. A flagstaff on the roof bears a gilded dolphin weathervane.

Single-storey vestries either side have a 2-light window to the north, south and west sides with hoodmoulds, and a doorway to the east side within short screen walls to the gap between the vestries and aisles. These have chamfered Tudor-arched doorways and coped parapets. The vestries have flat roofs and battlemented parapets. Chamfered plinths and battlemented parapets occur to the body of the church and the eastern projection.

Interior

The sanctuary has an offset to the side walls approximately half way up with ornamented cresting. A reredos removed from the predecessor church, to which it was given in 1736 by Richard Pennel, is of mahogany with a tripartite composition featuring Corinthian pilasters and an open pediment. It displays the Lord's Prayer to the left, the Creed to the right, and the Commandments in two panels to the centre. Above the outer panels at capital level are winged cherubs' heads with flower swags and a dove or eagle in glory emerging from clouds above the central panels, projecting into the pediment, all carved in relief and gilded. A 19th-century altar rail of mahogany mounted on a wrought-iron balustrade has rails terminating in winged angels' heads either side of the entry to the Sanctuary.

The nave arcades support galleries round three sides of the nave at mid-height and a plaster rib vault. The columns are of pine from Trinity, Newfoundland, and are composed of four circular shafts bolted together to give piers of quatrefoil sections rising to plain capitals with circular top moulding. The galleries have panelled fronts. The Royal Arms of George IV, carved and painted wood, occupies the centre of the west gallery front and was presented by the Mayor of Poole, George Welch Ledgard, in 1821. A gallery clock of the same date is signed WATTS POOLE. A screen at the west end of the nave is inscribed on the vestibule side with benefactors from 1612 to the present day.

An early 19th-century font of mahogany has a tripod base on castors, with a stem of three clustered shafts with a bell-shaped capital and a circular bowl with quatrefoil ornament in lozenges which project below with pendant finials. The reeded cover rises to an urn finial.

St Paul's chapel at the east end of the south aisle contains an 18th-century communion table of mahogany and a reredos of 18th-century panelling with fluted pilasters, incorporating five Renaissance panels with grotesque ornament.

An organ at the east end of the north aisle was removed from the west gallery. It was presented to the church in 1799 by Benjamin Lester and includes pipework from an organ of St John at Hackney by Sneteler.

A brass lectern of 1887 and an oak pulpit of 1894 are also present. The east window, called the Mariners Window, dates to 1897.

Memorials

An extensive series of wall monuments, many removed from the old church, includes a brass inscription plaque to Edward Man (d.1608) and another to Edward Man (1622). A white marble wall monument to George Lewen (d.1718) features a cartouche on a draped background with cherubs' heads and a skull above an acanthus bracket. Another monument to Sir William Phippard MP (d.1724) is of veined white marble with cherubs' head and urn finial, erected in 1774 and signed M Meatyard.

Other leading citizens commemorated include Peter Jolliff (d.1730) on a white marble drapery tablet surmounted by a cartouche of arms, erected in 1737; Sir Peter Thompson FSA, MP for St Albans (d.1770) on a white marble tablet surmounted by a flat obelisk with coat of arms; William Spurrier (d.1809) on a white marble tablet surmounted by a draped female mourner clasping a funerary urn, signed I Hiscock; and Thomas Parr, deputy provincial Grand Master (d.1824), on a tall white marble wall monument in the south gallery, carved in relief with cherubs and masonic symbols to the head, erected by his brethren.

Historical note

The first mention of a church at Poole is in 1142, when the chapel of St James was given to endow the new Priory of Bradenstoke, Wiltshire, together with the church of Canford.

The decision to rebuild the medieval parish church was taken in February 1819, but the rebuilding of the tower was not agreed upon until January 1820, which probably explains why it is a semi-independent structure.

The original architects' model survives, showing some features which were not finally executed. The tower was to have had a spire with a ball finial, and the eastern projection was to have been divided into two floors with a vestry on the ground floor and a Sunday school on the first floor, and to have had two tiers of windows with a quatrefoil window to the gable.

The foundation stone was laid on 31 May 1819. The total cost of rebuilding was £11,740, to which the parish contributed £6,000, the Corporation £1,000, and subscribers £2,010. The tower cost £2,730.

A stone tablet in the tower on the east wall of the first floor is inscribed: "This church was erected AD 1820 Revd Pet' Wm Joliffe Minister, JB Bloomfield Rob' Slade Jun' Churchwards Thos Benham, Builder".

The new church was opened on Easter Monday, 23 April 1821, St George's Day.

The rebuilding of St James's was the culmination of the almost complete rebuilding of the town which took place between 1700 and the early 19th century, the period of Poole's greatest prosperity. St James's is an exceptionally complete and virtually unaltered late Georgian church of high architectural quality.