Church of St Philip and St James

Church of St Philip and St James

Anglican parish church, built 1866-67 and designed by G E Street.

The church is constructed from coursed rubble stone with a tiled roof finished with ceramic ridge cresting. It is orientated west to east and comprises a nave and chancel under a single roof, with a north vestry, south porch, and small bellcote.

The exterior displays continuous moulded string courses running along the nave and chancel, with a buttress featuring offsets marking the division between these two elements. The south porch has a steeply pitched gabled roof and contains a trefoil-headed doorway. To its right sit two lancet windows and a two-light window with plate tracery, with a sanctus cross marking the roofline. The chancel is lit by two plate tracery windows on its south side, where a pointed chamfered doorway with hoodmould provides access. The east end features three stepped lancets beneath a hoodmould, topped with a coped verge and cross finial. A two-light plate tracery window lights the north side of the chancel. The attached lean-to vestry displays a pair of lancets to its east side and a window of three lancets under a gabled half dormer to the north, with an ashlar stack featuring offsets at its junction with the nave. The west side of the nave has a pair of lancets and two single lancets. The west end culminates in a projecting buttress with two-light geometrical tracery windows to either side, the buttress rising to an octagonal bellcote with pointed openings and gableted buttresses to the octagonal spire.

Internally, the porch's inner door is planked with ornamental hinges. The nave walls are of exposed rubble stone beneath a braced collar rafter roof. A chamfered pointed doorway on the north side of the nave provides access to the vestry. The pointed chancel arch frames a low integral screen wall. A Corsham stone pulpit, attached to the right-hand screen wall, features trefoil carvings and an open-lancet type balustrade. Three shallow steps with green-glazed tile risers, bordered by wrought iron railings, lead to the chancel; further wrought iron sanctuary rails with finials to the arms and a timber handrail enclose the sanctuary. The sedilia has two pointed-arched seats carried on a circular shaft between them, with the piscina to the left beneath a matching pointed arch. The chancel roof displays braced collared rafters with stencilled decoration. An organ chamber set in a chamfered pointed arch to the left of the chancel houses a Willis (Scudamore) organ dating to 1867, which was enlarged in 1907 by Griffen & Stroud of Bath.

The fittings throughout are Street's original designs. At the west end stands a quatrefoil-shaped font of pennant stone set on a single compound pier with an oak cover. The moveable pews include choir stalls with brass candleholders to their backs. Sconces light the nave walls, while a brass chandelier hangs in the chancel. Navajo and chancel floors are tiled by Godwin's of Lugwardine. The altar rests on a marble plinth. The Caen stone reredos displays Evangelists' symbols carved in relief with stencilled patterns to either side. The east window is by Clayton & Bell, regular patronisers of Street; other windows are by Horwood of Frome.