Church Of St James

Church of St James

The Church of St James is an Anglican parish church on the north side of Avebury High Street, with origins dating to the 10th century. The building incorporates work from the late 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, with later alterations in 1812 and a major chancel restoration in 1879 by R.J. Withers.

The church is built of dispersed sarsen and flint with limestone dressings. The west tower is of ashlar. The roof is finished with stone slate over the porch, slate over the nave, chancel and organ chamber, lead over the aisles, and screed to the north aisle.

The nave dates to the late Anglo-Saxon period. The 15th-century aisles replaced earlier narrow aisles of the late 12th century. The chancel is 13th-century, much rebuilt in 1879. The south porch and west tower are 14th-century, though the porch was largely rebuilt later. The porch has a 4-centred arch and contains a fine late 12th-century reset inner door with a round arch on double nook shafts. The arch is moulded with carved chevron and large nailhead outer orders, with a corbel at the apex.

The aisle windows are 3-light Perpendicular with bar tracery. The chancel windows comprise 2-light and 3-light examples, with a 3-light east window, all with bar tracery. The west tower is of three stages with angle buttresses and a south-east square-to-octagonal stair rising above a crenellated parapet. There is a low west door and a large 4-light window above. The ringing and bell chambers have 2-light windows. Crocketed pinnacles crown the parapet. The aisles have crenellated parapets to independent roofs built at the same time as the tower.

Interior

The interior features a tall Anglo-Saxon nave with two single-chamfered windows at the west end, rebated for shutters on the outer face. Some contemporary wall plaster remains within the north aisle. Three of the four original circular clerestory windows survive with holes around them.

The 10th-century walls are pierced by a 12th-century arcade of low arches, of which only the keeled nook shafts of the imposts remain following the insertion of a later medieval arcade. This later arcade comprises 2 bays raised on tall Tuscan columns inserted in 1812. The arches have an ogee outer order to a chamfered profile. Two-light clerestory windows date to the 17th century or later. A tall hollow-chamfered tower arch serves the 15th-century roof, which features moulded ties, collars and purlins. The aisles have near-flat roofs with moulded ties and squints to the chancel. The north aisle contains a small piscina and a stair to the rood loft in the east pier. The chancel has an open timber barrel vault with rendered and colourwashed walls and a tiled floor. A reset piscina with quatrefoiled sink and an arched aumbry are present.

Fittings and Monuments

The font is a fine 12th-century barrel with a bishop holding a crozier flanked by dragons and scrolls, with closely spaced arcading below. The 19th-century pulpit is of dark oak. The roof screen is an imposing panelled 19th-century structure with apostles in lower panels against gilded fields. Above this is a rare complete 15th-century rood loft with coloured and gilded panelled front resting on a beam on wall brackets, featuring trefoiled arches carrying steep crocketed gables and friezes of leaves and grapes. A brass lectern is present. The choir stalls incorporate 17th-century panelling. The altar is 19th-century with a reredos of painted panels depicting the Crucifixion and angels. An organ by Maley of London is housed in a 19th-century organ chamber.

Monuments in the north aisle include three 19th-century wall tablets to William Kemm (died 1853) and successors, with a draped urn over a corniced panel by Harrison of Marlborough, and simple tablets to Elizabeth Brown (died 1835) and John Brown (died 1839), also by Harrison. An east wall panel with Gothic border commemorates Reverend John Mayo (died 1866).

The south aisle contains a limestone war memorial above the door. The chancel houses a fine Carrara marble wall monument with an arched pediment, Corinthian pilasters, a gadrooned table on brackets and an apron, with angels drawing back curtains over an inscription to Dame Susanna Holford (died 1772), with side drapes. Two white marble tablets on grey record William Tanner (died 1847) with a draped urn by Reeves of Bath, and another William Tanner with a gabled tablet. A carved limestone aedicule with strapwork crest and apron on the south side contains three brasses to John Truslowe (erected by his son in 1593). A white marble tablet on grey commemorates John Mayo (died 1830) by Reeves, and a small tablet records William Tanner (died 1826), also by Reeves.

Brasses include that of William Bayly, a priest who died in 1427, brought from Berwick Bassett Church, and a 19th-century brass in the north aisle. A restored hatchment under the tower commemorates Lieutenant General Sir Alan Williamson (died 1798), and Royal Arms of George III are displayed. Parts of a 17th-century bellcage also survive.

Furniture includes a panelled chest in the north aisle dated 1634 IG. TS and a 17th-century chair in the choir. A sculpture reset in the porch shows part of an Anglo-Saxon baptismal scene and various 12th-century fragments. Externally, in the west wall of the nave, part of an Anglo-Saxon cross is built into the later Saxon fabric.