Church Of St James The Less

KINGSTON VILLAGE CENTRE SX 64 NW 4/34 Church of St James the Less 26.1.67 GV II*

Anglican parish church. C14 and C15 with major restoration in 1893. Thin coursed granite rubble with granite dressings, slate roofs to coped gables. Nave, west tower, south porch, south chapel and north aisle. Square tower in 2 stages to battlemented coping on corbel table, diagonal buttresses in two stages, raised stair turret north east corner. West front has small door to segmental head under a 3-light Perpendicular window in limestone with 2 rows of voussoirs, simple stopped drip-mould; 2 small cusped louvred lights to bell stage, also to east, single lights north and south on two levels. Plinth. Nave south side has C14 2-light with quatrefoil each side of gable porch with plain responds to 4-centred arch; inner doorway round arched, chamfered, small voussoirs, containing late medieval 3-plank door with strap hinges. Step down into porch and into nave. Chapel has 3-light Perpendicular window in south wall and 2-light quasi-plate traceried east window. Chancel south, is two 2-light similar to nave, with central priests door in plank and filled-in square-headed opening; east end has low diagonal buttresses and a 3-light Perpendicular window; north side plain. North aisle has 3-light re-cut Perpendicular at east end of L893, and three 3-light uncusped in 4-centred arches with drip-moulds in north wall. Far right is door in moulded granite surround to 4-centred head, plank and batten door. Large square buttress to corner and 3-light window to west end. Interior: walls mainly stripped of plaster. Nave entered by 5 steps down from porch, 4-bay arcade of 4 shafts and 4 hollows, trumpet caps, 4-centred arches to double hollow, pointed barrel roof, mostly C19. No break to chancel; plate to roof has leaf decoration. North aisle has C19 barrel roof. South chapel (Worwell Chapel) also stripped walls, squint to main altar, aumbry right of window, vertical blocked opening or statue niche to left. Tower interior whitewashed; has 4 steps down from west entrance and further 4 Into nave, taking up fall in ground slope. Fittings and monuments: mainly of the late C19 restor- ation - a panel in the porch records that the ICBS gave £30 in 1892 towards re-seating and repairs. C15 octagonal font set on good 1702 slate slab to Elizabeth, wife of Herbert F....d. Priest's seat formed from medieval bench ends. A good late C18 memorial slab below north aisle east window, includes inscription to Frances Stephens, 1773, aged 11 months. In the Worwell Chapel, a marble monument to John Wise of Worwell (q.v), died 1807. Medieval ring of 4 bells, now augmented to six. A tablet in the north wall gives Edmund Stedding as architect in 1891: the restoration was completed two years later, at which time a lean-to vestry on the north side was removed. (Pevsner, South Devon, 1952; Kingston: A South Hams Village, 1980).

Listing NGR: SX6352947795