Church Of St James

The Church of St James is a Grade I listed building located on Churchend Lane in Charfield. Originally built in the 13th century, it was remodelled in the 15th century and underwent repairs in the 1970s. The church features a west tower, nave, south aisle, north porch, and chancel, constructed from coursed, squared rubble with Cotswold stone slate roofs.

The west tower has four stages and a pitched roof, supported by diagonal buttresses with offsets. It includes a two-light opening with a trefoil head for the bell chamber and an embattled parapet. The nave contains two three-light windows with cusped heads and tracery, both set under hood moulds. The north porch showcases a pierced parapet adorned with cusped quatrefoils, a central image niche supported by angels, and a 17th-century studded plank door with fleur-de-lys ends and a moulded doorcase.

In the chancel, there are two three-light windows with cusped heads beneath square hood moulds, along with a three-light east window featuring a four-centred head and a blocked priest's door. The south aisle has three three-light windows with cusped heads and hood moulds, as well as a panelled south door.

Inside, there is a 15th-century north door with four panels, reticulated tracery, and fleurons. The church has a three-bay arcade supported by octagonal piers and capitals, with arch-braced roofs in the nave and aisle, an embattled wall plate, and cusped arch-braces on five principal trusses resting on corbels. A squint with rood stairs is built over. The chancel, which has been much restored, features a panelled soffit to the chancel arch, a restored trefoil-headed piscina, and remnants of decorative heads on image niches on the east wall.

Monuments within the church include a 17th-century Renaissance piece with columns, entablature, and a heavily moulded cornice; a baroque oval tablet commemorating Daniels, who died in 1717, is set between drapery, a cornice, and heraldry above. Another monument in the south aisle commemorates Bennet, who died in 1756, and is presented in aedicule style with a pediment and heraldry. The church is currently vested in the Redundant Churches Fund.