Church of St James

Church of St James

An Anglican parish church of Ludgershall, dating from the 12th to 16th centuries, with substantial restoration carried out in 1873 by J. L. Pearson.

The church is constructed of flint with limestone quoining, the 12th-century work featuring alternating limestone and greensand. It has slate roofs throughout, except for the chancel which was retiled in the 20th century.

The main body comprises a long nave of 12th-century date with a tiled 19th-century south porch. The chancel is early 13th century. The north transept dates from the 14th century, as does the south transept, though the latter was altered in the 16th century. The 12th-century west tower was heightened in 1873.

Externally, the nave features three-light 16th-century windows with cinquefoils set in square heads. Large pilaster buttresses stand at the west end. The north side retains one small 12th-century round-headed window, and a blocked 12th-century door. Two-light 14th-century windows with ogee tracery are present, together with a 19th-century copy. The early 13th-century chancel has three small lancets on each side and three lancets at the east end, now restored. The north chapel contains similar 14th-century windows and a 19th-century north window. The south chapel was rebuilt as a chantry in the 16th century with a reset 15th-century moulded door and chamfered three-light windows.

The tower displays an early medieval lower stage with angle buttresses and a small, possibly late Anglo Saxon, monolithic window on its south side. A two-light west window replaces a 12th-century opening. Lancets light the second stage, while the 19th-century top stage has two-light openings with corner pinnacles. An inscription on the north face is dated 1675–1678, and an inset stone on the south face reads FEPMCNTM 1675, recording the churchwardens' initials.

Interior

The nave is plastered and whitened, with a simple 19th-century roof of seven bays. A two-centred tower arch springs from square responds, its cornice moulding on the south side being original work. Tall inner round-headed arches serve opposing entrance doors, with the inner porch door dating from the 14th century. Chamfered arches lead to the chapels; the northern arch displays carved grotesque heads. There is no chancel arch, but a blocked rood stair survives in the north pier. The south chapel arch has been altered.

The chancel has wide reveals and two-centred chamfered inner rere-arches to its windows. A blocked south priest's door is present. The chancel roof, dating from the 19th century, spans four bays. A trefoil-headed piscina and a Gothic stone reredos of the 19th-century restoration with mosaic in triple central cusped arched and crocketed gables are notable features.

The north chapel contains a piscina with credence shelf. The south chapel features a high ceiling and a double-cusped piscina with shelf. A low side chancel window with ogee head is incorporated into the chapel. A 16th-century moulded panelled oak door is preserved.

Fittings and Furniture

At the west end stands an octagonal limestone font, probably of 15th-century date. The pulpit is facetted oak on a stone base. Choir stalls date from 1873.

A Walker organ stands in a handsome mahogany and walnut case. A bow-fronted late 18th-century chest of drawers is displayed. In the south chapel are a Parish chest of 1693 and a communion table of the same date.

Monuments and Memorials

The south chapel was converted to a Brydges Chantry in 1553 and contains a large monument set under the entrance arch. This comprises a chest tomb with slab and effigies of Sir Richard Brydges in dress armour and his wife in a black surcoat, sheltered beneath a four-centred canopy supported on fluted bulbous Corinthian columns. Arms and flanking ornament appear in the spandrels. Flanking the chest are tall tapered Corinthian columns supporting an entablature, with a roundel supported by angels in the frieze. Arms in an aedicule crest are flanked by jolly cupids. On the chest are depicted three daughters and two sons in natural varied attitudes, one with a pet dog. The pedestals carry carved ornamentation, and a draped angel on the soffit of the arch holds figures. This is an important work of the early English Renaissance, restored and repainted by the Pilgrim Trust.

In the north chapel are two wall monuments: (a) a limestone tablet with cornice and apron of mid-18th-century date, and (b) a 19th-century marble wall tablet.

In the nave is a white marble wall tablet on grey, with two slabs bearing arms, commemorating Charles Green (died 1830) and his wife and daughter. By the south door is a small section of carving said to be part of an Anglo Saxon cross, reset in 1873.