Church Of St James

Church of St James

Anglican parish church of the 15th century, extensively restored in 1875. The church is constructed of squared and coursed slatestone with granite ashlar dressings, featuring a 15th-century moulded coping and parapet decorated with a frieze of chequered limestone and slatestone, and a late 19th-century slate roof.

The plan comprises a chancel and nave with a vestry and chapel to the north, a continuous south aisle, and a west tower. The chancel has a hood mould over a late 19th-century Perpendicular-style three-light window. The one-bay side walls contain label moulds over 15th-century one-light windows with cinquefoiled heads and quatrefoil spandrels. The vestry, built in 1875 to the north of the chancel, has a chequered frieze to its parapet. The north chapel features a late 19th-century Perpendicular-style three-light window to the east and hood moulds over two 15th-century two-light windows with cinquefoiled heads to the north, restored in the 19th century; there is also a 19th-century octagonal stack.

The two-bay north wall of the nave has label moulds over two 15th-century three-light square-headed windows with cinquefoiled heads, flanking a blocked 15th-century doorway. The south aisle has a hood mould over a late 19th-century Perpendicular-style three-light window in both the east and west gable. The four-bay south front features 15th-century offset buttresses and label moulds over late 15th-century three-light square-headed windows with cinquefoiled heads and mouchettes in the spandrels. A label mould covers a chamfered basket-arched doorway to the east, with fleurons carved in the spandrels.

The 15th-century south porch, restored in 1875, has offset diagonal buttresses and moulded coping. Above the hood mould over the arched casement-moulded doorway is a sundial with gilt lettering dated 1731; the doorway itself is mostly late 19th century. Below the porch is a fine 12th-century south doorway of exceptional character. Its round arch comprises three orders decorated with imbricated ornament, a three-quarter roll, and chevron carving. At the top of the arch is a humorous carving of a head with a bulbous nose, as if peering over the doorway. The imposts are carved with interlacing round arches and Celtic-style head carvings. A carving of a ram's head adjoins the scalloped west capital, and a carving of a man's head adjoins the east capital, which is carved with volutes (as found at Buckland Brewer). The jambs flanking the doorway have moulded arrises. The door itself has a late 19th-century leaf applied to the front of a 15th-century framework.

The three-stage west tower has full-height diagonal corner buttresses and string courses. To the west is a hood over a plain three-light Perpendicular window with chamfered depressed-arched lights, set above a label mould over a moulded granite doorway with sunk spandrels to the arched head. The door is 19th century but includes 15th-century applied tracery. The belfry windows are two-light louvred openings with chamfered depressed-arched lights. The crenellated parapet is fitted with 18th-century pyramidal crocketed pinnacles.

The interior was heavily restored in 1875. The 15th-century four-bay north arcade comprises moulded stone arches set on the usual quatrefoil-section piers, with Perpendicular capitals decorated with foliate and floriated carvings on the abaci. A similar six-bay south arcade is present. The chancel floor is laid with late 19th-century encaustic tiles. The arch-braced roofs throughout date from 1875 and incorporate 15th-century moulded wall plates and corbels.

Fittings include late 19th-century painted texts of the Ten Commandments flanking the east window, and a mid-18th-century communion rail with barley-sugar balusters. The plain choir stalls, pews, eagle lectern, and wrought-iron candelabra with brass candle holders probably date from after the 1875 restoration. A mid-18th-century polygonal and panelled pulpit, with barley-sugar balusters to the steps and a carved frieze, stands on a late 19th-century base. The scalloped 12th-century font has a late 19th-century ogee-shaped cover and late 19th-century stone base and plinth, surrounded by reset 15th and 16th-century Barnstaple-type tiles. A late 19th-century bier stands in the north chapel.

The church contains numerous monuments and memorials. The chancel has tablets to Richard Walter (died 1842) and Reverend William Walter (died 1843). The north chapel holds a mid-18th-century monument with angels on a broken pediment and Corinthian columns. The monument to Thomas Saltren (died 1753) by Jonathan Richard Veale of Plymouth features a heraldic cartouche beneath a fine black and white marble eared architectural frame flanked by scrolls and wheatear carvings. Three mid-18th-century monuments on the west wall consist of an urn on a pedimented monument to the centre flanked by tablets with swagged ornament. The north wall of the nave displays a slate tablet in an architectural frame to Richard Blinch (died 1767), a slate tablet set in a nowy-headed architrave with plain pilasters to Susannah Nichols (died 1696), a scrolled marble tablet to T.J.W. Thomas (died 1845), and a monument to John Fortescue (died 1710) with a painted foliate-carved frame flanked by reversed acanthus brackets. A 17th and 18th-century ledger stone is located at the east end of the south aisle, and a 17th-century inscription is set in the floor of the choir.