Church of St James is a Grade II listed building in the East Devon local planning authority area, England. First listed on 27 January 1989. A Medieval Church.
Church of St James
- WRENN ID
- sunken-quartz-tallow
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- East Devon
- Constituency
- Honiton and Sidmouth MP: Richard Foord (LD)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 27 January 1989
- Type
- Church
- Period
- Medieval
- Address
- Church of St James, Sheldon
- OS grid reference
- ST 120 086
- Coordinates
- 50.87026, -3.25193
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St James is a small parish church featuring a Norman font and a 15th-century tower, with the remainder of the structure rebuilt in 1871. The tower is constructed of local stone rubble with Beerstone ashlar details, while the rest of the church is made of flint with Membury stone dressings and has a slate roof. The layout consists of a nave that is lower and narrower than the chancel, with no aisles and a south porch leading to a west tower.
The exterior showcases the 15th-century west tower, which has two stages and is unbuttressed, topped with an embattled parapet that includes a Beerstone niche on the north side. The belfry windows display various styles, and the west doorway is blocked. Above it, there is a three-light window featuring Perpendicular tracery and a plain hood. The rebuilt portion from 1871 includes single and double lancet windows on each side and a three-light east window with plate tracery. The gabled south porch has a two-centred outer arch with a chamfered surround, matching the south door.
Inside, most features date from the 1871 rebuild. The nave and chancel have boarded roofs supported by open king post trusses with curving collars. The chancel arch is a plain ashlar two-centred arch, while the tower arch is of indeterminate date. The walls are plastered, and the floor consists of flags and tiles, with encaustic tiles in the chancel. The altar table, altar rail, stalls, and benches are all made of pine with minimal Gothic decoration. The oak rood screen is mostly a 1939 rebuild of the original 15th-century screen, although some tracery is original. The pulpit also incorporates some old carved oak. The Norman font is made of Beerstone, featuring a plain circular bowl on a cylindrical shaft. There are no monuments within the church.
Local climate
Church of St James receives an average of 820 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 52% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 63% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 25 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 73% of listed buildings. Of these, 9 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- Sale history — 1 transaction since 2017
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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