Church Of St James

The Church of St James is a Grade II* Anglican parish church located in North Newnton. It has origins dating back to the 13th century, with additions from the 15th and 19th centuries. The church is constructed of limestone ashlar and flint for the tower, while the nave and chancel are made of malmstone banded with brick. The building features a nave with a south porch, a chancel, a north vestry, and a west tower. The nave includes triple lancet windows on the north-west side and a reset 2-light 14th-century window on the south, with the remainder featuring 19th-century plate tracery. The chapel has lancets, with a triple window at the east end and paired windows on the south. The porch was added in the 19th century.

The 15th-century tower has three stages and is supported by angle buttresses resting on large sarsens. It includes a staircase in the south-east angle, paired bell openings, and a parapet with animal-headed spouts. The floor beams of the bell stage and roof extend through the walls and are keyed, topped with stone pent roofs. The west door is square-headed, with a window above it.

Inside, the nave and chancel were largely rebuilt around 1862. The interior features a three-bay timber roof, with the bays divided by additional tie beam trusses. There is a 19th-century chancel arch and a timber barrel-vaulted chancel, which contains a 13th-century piscina with a credence shelf. An arch leads to the 19th-century vestry, and there is a hollow chamfered arch to the tower.

Notable fittings include a 15th-century octagonal font under the tower, decorated with quatrefoiled panels, and a 19th-century stone pulpit with steps leading from the chancel. The chancel contains two wall tablets: one on the north side commemorates Francis Wroughton of Estcot, who died in 1733, featuring Carrara and grey marbles with a broken scroll pediment and boar's head crest; the south side has a similar tablet for Caraline, Countess of Abingdon, who died in 1741, with arms and supporters between scrolls. There are also five 19th-century brasses and stained glass in the east and west tower windows, dating from the 19th century.