Church Of St James

The Church of St James is an Anglican parish church largely dating from the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, with a late 18th-century north aisle. It is constructed of rubble stone, with some rendering, and has stone-tiled roofs with coped gables. The church comprises a west tower, nave, south porch, north aisle, and chancel.

The west tower is of three stages. The lower two stages are 13th century, with stepped diagonal buttresses, rendered walls, and small single lights to the west side. The upper stage dates from 1840 and is constructed of ashlar with Y-tracery two-light bell openings on each side, a dripcourse, plain parapet, and corner pinnacles. The south side of the nave has a two-light window from the 18th century and a projecting 14th-century porch, tiled in stone with an arch-braced-collar rafter roof and dogtooth carving to the wallplate. The fine 12th-century south doorway is framed by two circular shafts with scallop capitals, square abaci, a chevron-moulded arch with pellets to the hoodmould, and is topped by an ashlar gable over a three-light pointed window with flamboyant tracery. A stepped buttress is located at the south east corner. The chancel south side has a Perpendicular flat-head two-light window and a three-light window. A blocked, very low door exists between them. At the east end is a triplet of 13th-century lancets, and two lancets are located on the north side. The north aisle, which replaced an earlier aisle, is constructed of coursed squared rubble with stepped corner buttresses and ashlar coved eaves. The east and west windows, and four north windows, are of two lights with a trefoil above. The tracery is idiosyncratic.

The interior features a three-chamfer tower arch and a plastered nave roof. A fine 14th-century octagonal font is present. Behind a fine early 17th-century moulded panelled pulpit with tester are the remains of former rood stairs. A two-chamfer chancel arch leads to a plastered chancel roof, featuring good 1850 stained glass in bright colours, incorporating older fragments in the east window. A Dutch 17th-century painting hangs above the altar. A Gothic tablet on the east wall commemorates Reverend M. Wyatt, who died in 1830 and was created by Reeves of Bath. The north arcade has four bays, quatrefoil clustered shafts, and two-hollow moulded arches but was recut or rebuilt in the early 19th century; the bases of the original piers remain. The north aisle was rebuilt in the late 18th century, with the east end serving as the Methuen chapel, separated from the nave by a dividing screen, similar to the nave arcade, but with a tall central arch flanked by lower side arches. Spearhead iron railings are present. Windows contain early and mid-19th-century stained glass. The Methuen chapel has a shallow curved ceiling with a pattern of coats of arms radiating in genealogical order, linked by rope moulding. A black and white marble floor, laid around a monumental Greek revival white marble sarcophagus of Paul Methuen (1723-95) and Christian Methuen (died 1779), exists—it is thought that Nollekens may have been involved in its creation around 1780. Plaques commemorate P. C. Methuen (died 1816), by King of Bath, and P. M. Methuen (died 1837), by Sir R. Westmacott. The Methuen chapel was reputedly built in 1793, but payments for the floor and monument date back to 1780.