Church Of St James

Church of St James

Anglican parish church situated on Bratton Church Road. The building dates principally from the 14th and 15th centuries, with significant Victorian restoration work undertaken in the 19th century.

The church is constructed of rubble stone and ashlar with lead roofs, built to an aisled cruciform plan with a south porch and north vestry. The chancel was rebuilt in 1854 by G.G. Scott, with further restoration carried out in 1860 by T.H. Wyatt. A north vestry was added in 1925.

The south porch is a 15th-century rebuild of an earlier structure, gabled with a 19th-century Tudor-arched doorway. Above the doorway is a pair of 19th-century lancets. The porch features a diagonal buttress to the left and a battlemented parapet with a scratch sundial bearing the initials JR/W carved into the centre merlon. The south aisle contains a 16th-century 2-light window with cusped lights and a battlemented parapet. The south clerestory displays two 3-light pointed Perpendicular windows with a string course and large gargoyles leading to the battlemented parapet. The south transept has a 14th-century 2-light window with hoodmould to the south, diagonal buttresses, a 19th-century 16th-century-style window to the east, and a plain parapet.

The 1854 chancel features lancets either side of a blind doorway, diagonal buttresses at the east end, and a 3-light geometric-style window. The 1925 north vestry has 2-light windows to the east and north, with gargoyles from the nave roof reset on the parapet. The north transept contains a 14th-century 2-light north window, diagonal buttresses, and a plain parapet. The north aisle displays two 16th-century 2-light cusped windows with hoodmoulds, a chamfered pointed doorway to the left, a string course, and a plain parapet. The north clerestory has two 3-light Perpendicular windows and a parapet with gargoyles.

The west end features diagonal buttresses at the outer corners of the aisles and buttresses with offsets to the nave. A large Tudor-arched 15th-century doorway is positioned beneath a 4-light Perpendicular window, with a former roofline visible above.

The three-stage crossing tower has 2-light 16th-century windows to the first stage. The middle stage displays a large painted sundial inscribed with the words TEMPUS FUGIT and dated 1801. Single-light openings appear on all sides above this, while the bellstage contains 2-light square-headed windows with pierced stone louvres. A string course with gargoyles leads to the battlemented parapet. An octagonal stair turret on the north east corner features chamfered loopholes and a conical roof.

Interior features include stone benches in the porch and a 14th-century image niche above the 19th-century doorway. The two-bay nave retains its 15th-century shallow-pitched king post roof with moulded soffits supported on 19th-century corbels. The north and south arcades are recut 14th-century wave-moulded piers with attached shafts supporting wide pointed arches. Moulded pointed arches at the east end lead to the transepts. The crossing displays fine 14th-century work with compound piers and moulded arches, topped by a tierceron vault on carved head corbels and featuring a circular bell rope hatch with bosses. The south transept, now serving as the organ chamber, and the north transept have 19th-century rafter roofs. The north transept retains angel corbels and four blocked cusped niches to the east wall, with a narrow ribbed door to the stairs. The chancel contains an archway to the vestry and a blind doorway, alongside a trefoiled piscina.

The fittings include a recut 12th-century font bowl with scallops, 19th-century pulpit and pews, and a 17th-century altar table. Good stained glass in the east, west, and aisle windows dates to the 1860s and is by A. Gibbs. Monuments include marble tablets in the south transept: one to William Whitaker, died 1771, with an urn; another to Elizabeth Whitaker, died 1806, by King of Bath.