Church Of St James The Less

The Church of St James the Less is an Anglican parish church dating back to the 14th and 15th centuries, with substantial restoration work carried out in 1893. It is constructed of thin coursed granite rubble with granite dressings, and has slate roofs to coped gables. The church consists of a nave, a west tower, a south porch, a south chapel, and a north aisle.

The square west tower has two stages topped with battlemented coping on a corbel table, with diagonal buttresses to both stages. A raised stair turret is located in the north-east corner. The west front features a small doorway with a segmental head, above which is a 3-light Perpendicular window constructed of limestone with two rows of voussoirs and a simple stopped drip-mould. There are also small cusped, louvred lights to the bell stage, as well as single lights north and south on two levels.

The south side of the nave has a 2-light C14 window with quatrefoils flanking a gabled porch with plain responds to a 4-centred arch. The inner doorway is round arched, chamfered, features small voussoirs, and contains a late medieval 3-plank door with strap hinges. A step down leads into the porch, and then into the nave. The south chapel has a 3-light Perpendicular window in the south wall and a 2-light quasi-plate traceried east window. The chancel south side has two 2-light windows similar to those in the nave, with a central priest’s door set within a plank and filled-in square-headed opening. The east end has low diagonal buttresses and a 3-light Perpendicular window, while the north side is plain. The north aisle has a 3-light, re-cut Perpendicular window at its east end (dating from the 1893 restoration), and three further 3-light, uncusped windows with 4-centred arches and drip-moulds along the north wall. A door with a moulded granite surround, leading to a 4-centred head and a plank and batten door, is also positioned on the north side. A large square buttress sits in the corner, with a 3-light window at the west end.

The interior's walls are largely stripped of plaster. The nave is entered by a flight of 5 steps down from the porch, leading to a 4-bay arcade of 4 shafts and 4 hollows, featuring trumpet capitals and 4-centred arches. A pointed barrel roof, mostly from the 19th century, covers the nave. The chancel is uninterrupted; the plate to the roof is decorated with leaf motifs. The north aisle has a C19 barrel roof. Worwell Chapel has also had its walls stripped. It includes a squint to the main altar and an aumbry to the right of the window, along with a blocked vertical opening or statue niche. The tower interior is whitewashed and has 4 steps down from the west entrance and a further 4 steps down into the nave, which accounts for the fall in the ground slope.

Notable fittings and monuments include a panel in the porch recording that the Incorporated Church Building Society contributed £30 in 1892 towards reseating and repairs. A C15 octagonal font stands on a good 1702 slate slab inscribed to Elizabeth, wife of Herbert F….d. There is a priest’s seat formed from medieval bench ends. A good, late C18 memorial slab is positioned below the north aisle’s east window, with an inscription to Frances Stephens, who died in 1773 aged 11 months. A marble monument commemorates John Wise of Worwell, who died in 1807, located in Worwell Chapel. The church originally possessed a medieval ring of four bells, now augmented to six. A tablet notes Edmund Stedding as architect in 1891; the restoration leading to the current appearance was completed two years later, at which time a lean-to vestry on the north side was removed.