Parish Church Of St James The Elder

The parish church of St James the Elder is an Anglican church dating back to the 12th century, substantially rebuilt in the 14th century, and altered in the 15th and 16th centuries. It was restored in 1865. The church comprises a west tower, a nave, a north aisle, a south porch, and a chancel. It is constructed of ashlar and coursed squared rubble, with Cotswold stone slate roofs behind plain parapets.

The west tower is of Perpendicular style, with three stages, diagonal buttresses that end in pilasters topped with pinnacles, and an embattled parapet. It features 3-light bell chamber windows with stone louvres and cusped tracery; a 3-light west window with small embattled transoms over the tracery, all beneath a hood mould. The nave has two 3-light windows, similar to the west window but without the embattled transoms, as well as a projection for a rood stair. The south porch is also of Perpendicular style, two storeys high, with diagonal buttresses, and incorporates a polygonal stair turret surmounted by a spirelet on its north-west corner. The porch has a chamfered doorway and a 2-light casement above. The chancel, largely restored, has two bays with windows similar to those in the nave, and includes a priest’s door and a 5-light east window resembling the west window. The north aisle and chapel incorporate three windows similar to that on the west side, with buttresses and an offset. A north door is set within a chamfered surround.

Inside the church, the south porch features a ribbed tierceron-vault with an Agnus Dei on the central boss; corner jamb shafts with carved capitals (minstrels to the north, grotesque beasts to the south); a moulded doorcase with a 4-centred head, square hood mould, an image niche above, and an ogee-headed stoup. The nave includes a 3-bay 14th-century arcade with cylindrical piers and octagonal caps, chamfered arches, and a respond to the west arch resting on a grotesque corbel. The tower arch is of Perpendicular style with concave moulding, as are the chancel arch and the arches to the north chapel, which are supported by cylindrical shafts. Wagon roofs cover the nave. Remains of an ashlar rood stair feature 4-centre doorways, one of which leads to an enriched Jacobean pulpit on a 15th-century panelled, vase-shaped base. A 12th-century font, recut in the 17th century, has a panelled octagonal bowl on a circular base and a 17th-century cover. A pillar piscina with a carved capital and octagonal shaft is located in the chancel. The east window of the north chapel contains reassembled medieval glass fragments.

The north chapel contains several monuments, including those to Ann Austin (died 1731), William Paston (died c.1673), William Paston (died 1769, by James Paty of Bristol), and John Paston (died 1737). The Ann Austin memorial is a baroque tablet of grey and white marble with volutes. The William Paston (1673) monument is also baroque, of grey and white marbles, with a segmental pediment, winged cherubic heads, and a gadrooned base. The William Paston (1769) monument, by James Paty, is of coloured and white marbles, featuring a gadrooned sarcophagus, heraldry, and an inscribed plinth. The John Paston memorial is a grey and white marble obelisk with a flat inscribed panel and gadrooned base, also displaying heraldry. The nave includes a memorial to Baron de Tuyll (1913), an Art Nouveau plaque by W.C.H. King, featuring female figures flanking an urn. A hatchment is located in the tower.