Church Of St James

The Church of St James is an Anglican parish church dating from the 13th century, with significant additions and alterations in the 14th and 15th centuries, and a major restoration in 1884 by Pope and Paul of Bristol. The church is constructed of rubble with plain clay tile roofs, raised coped verges, and saddlestones. It comprises a west tower, a nave, north and south aisles, a south porch, a south chapel, and a chancel.

The Perpendicular tower has two stages, featuring diagonal buttresses and a castellated parapet with crocketed corner finials. A square stair turret rises on the north side. The west door is a small two-centered arch with a heavy hoodmould, above which is a three-light window. The second stage has a single louvred, two-light window on each side, also under a hoodmould. The nave is gabled, and the gabled north aisle has two windows with reticulated tracery and two Perpendicular windows. The narrow south aisle has a lancet window to the west. A two-light Perpendicular window is located to the right of the gabled, 19th-century south porch. To the right of this is a low, chamfered, four-centered arched priest's door, leading to a four-light Perpendicular window with a hoodmould, which illuminates the south chapel. The south chapel also has a three-light, pointed, late Perpendicular east window. The chancel is gabled, with raised quoins and a three-light Decorated east window.

Inside, a tall, narrow tower arch is present. The three-bay south arcade features octagonal piers with feet, while the three-bay north arcade has piers with clustered shafts under a continuous hoodmould. The ceiling is a wagon roof. A fragment of carved stone has been reset near the rebuilt chancel arch. The rebuilt south chapel contains remnants of a cusped tomb recess and a plain, pointed piscina.

Numerous memorials are located within the church. In the south aisle are memorials to Bridges (dated 1657), featuring cherubs and a memento mori set around text below a pediment with consoles; Webb/Pullin (1714), with text framed by Ionic columns, an apron, entablature and a swan neck pediment with an urn; and Pullin (1729), featuring a cartouche between fluted, Ionic pilasters, a gadrooned plinth, apron, putto, entablature, and a scrolled pediment with an urn. The north aisle contains a 1727 wall-mounted engraved slab for Hobbs, a 1766 marble memorial for Davies, a 1777 dark marble memorial for Hobbs with festoons, a broken pediment with an urn, and another for Hobbs, dated 1830, with consoles, an entablature with an acroterion and an urn. Three 19th-century tablets are located in the nave.