Church Of St James

The Church of St. James is an Anglican parish church located in Ansty Village. It dates back to the 13th century and has undergone restorations in 1842, 1878, 1917, and 1965. The church is constructed of dressed limestone and features a tiled roof with a cruciform plan. The transepts were rebuilt in the 19th century.

The north transept includes a chamfered pointed doorway with a hoodmould and double doors, along with a group of three stepped lancets topped with a hoodmould and a coped verge. The nave, located to the right, has a pair of lancets, while the west end is supported by diagonal buttresses and features three stepped lancets with a hoodmould, as well as a small stone bellcote with a cross finial on the gable. The south side of the nave also has a pair of lancets. The south transept contains a Tudor-arched doorway to the west and three stepped lancets to the south.

Attached at the angle between the chancel and the transept is a flat-roofed vestry from 1878, which has a chamfered doorcase. The chancel features a pair of lancets on both the north and south sides, and a group of three lancets at the east end.

Inside, the church has plain plastered walls and renewed roofs in the nave and transepts from the 1965 restoration. The chancel and transepts are supported by chamfered pointed arches on broad octagonal half-shafts. The chancel boasts a plastered wagon roof and late 17th-century bench ends with well-carved foliage, believed to have originated from Seth Ward's stalls at Salisbury Cathedral. The east window contains good late 19th-century stained glass. In the north transept, there is a cylindrical stone font adorned with stylised drop ornament. The south chapel features two notable late 18th-century wall tablets: one is a limestone and marble tablet commemorating William Best, who died in 1794, with fluting, a broken segmental pediment with an urn, and a scrolled apron; the other is a similar tablet for Bridgette Lambert, who died in 1792, featuring a pediment and fluted pilasters.