Church Of St James

Church of St James

An Anglican parish church in Coln St Dennis, dating from the 12th and 15th centuries. The building was restored in 1890 by Waller and again in 1904 by William Weir. It is constructed of coursed, finely squared and dressed limestone with a stone slate roof. The plan comprises a chancel, nave with a projecting central tower.

The nave dates from the 12th century and features clasping buttresses at the west end. The north wall contains a Perpendicular two-light window with hollow-chamfered stone mullions and trefoil-headed lights, with a hood decorated with carved head stops to the left of the porch. A 19th-century plank door within the porch is set within a 12th-century surround of two orders, featuring thin engaged jamb shafts with simple scalloped capitals and a billeted hood mould. A billeted string runs along the west end, interrupted by a Perpendicular three-light window. On the south wall is a 14th-century two-light window with quatrefoil to the right of a 19th-century vestry, which obscures the original 12th-century south door with plain tympanum and billeted hood. A small round-headed 12th-century window with recessed surround stands to the right of this. The nave is topped by a 15th-century parapet.

The central tower is 12th century in its lower stages, with a 15th-century upper stage. Projecting stairs at the south-west corner and pilaster buttresses are present, the latter strengthened on the east by massive 15th-century buttresses with offsets. The ground floor on the south side has tall trefoil-headed lancets, to the right of a blocked 12th-century priests' door with dressed stone lintel, plain tympanum and moulded hood. A single light with flat-chamfered surround and continuous dripmould rises to the belfry stage, with a string course and band below. The north side of the tower has a tall trefoil-headed lancet at ground floor level and a blocked two-light belfry window, formerly consisting of two round-headed openings with central jamb shaft. The 15th-century upper stage is battlemented, featuring two-light trefoil-headed belfry windows with stone slate louvres.

The chancel is 12th century, with clasping buttresses; its north and south walls are partially rebuilt, reusing 12th-century stonework. A billeted string runs at the east end, with similar billeted strings at the same level on the north and south walls, now set back into the fabric. Traces of a former corbel table remain below. A pointed 14th-century two-light window with tracery and stepped hood occupies the south wall. The east window is a three-light Perpendicular design with transom and stopped hood. A Perpendicular two-light rectangular north window with stopped hood is also present. A late Perpendicular north porch features a tall pointed hollowed-chamfered entrance with an early plank door dated 1637, fitted with fillets and strap hinges. The chancel is topped with stepped coping and a 19th-century Maltese cross finial; the porch has flat coping and a roll-cross saddle.

The interior comprises a four-bay nave with the base of the tower forming the choir, and a single-bay chancel. The nave roof is a restored Perpendicular design with braced chamfered tie beams and fine reset 12th-century grotesque head corbels. The chancel has a late 19th- to early 20th-century panelled wagon roof, which replaced former vaulting. The west tower arch is flattened, of two orders with engaged jamb shafts with simple scalloped capitals. The east arch is rebuilt as a Perpendicular pointed arch on 12th-century piers matching those of the west tower arch. An early studded plank priests' door with strap hinges is set on the south side of the tower, with plain tympanum and stopped hood. The chancel has engaged 12th-century shafts with scalloped capitals in each of its four corners, indicating the former presence of a vaulted ceiling. A mutilated round-headed piscina with roll moulding is set into the south wall of the chancel. A chamfered string runs along the east wall of the chancel, interrupted by the later window base. 12th-century hood moulds originally continued around the nave above the north and south doorways. Coloured tile flooring covers the nave and chancel.

The church contains a 12th-century tub-shaped font, later chamfered into eight roughly shaped scallops to fit an octagonal pedestal. 19th-century wooden fittings include pews, pulpit, lectern, communion rail and altar table. Monuments include an oval marble tablet with heraldry to Benjamin Kemp Bart (died 1777) and a grey marble monument to John Kirril (died 1762) on the nave north wall; a limestone monument to John Bridges (died 1679) and family members with bolection-moulded surround and cherub's head within a segmental hood flanked by finials on the south wall. The north wall of the chancel bears a limestone monument to Joahne Burton, daughter of Richard Burton (died 1631), with a moulded triangular pediment, and a limestone monument to John House (died 1760), Mary House (died 1743) and other family members with foliate marginal panels. Three 18th-century ledgers to members of the Hughes family are set in the chancel floor and walls. Three small 19th-century tablets to members of the Price family are located in the splay of the south window.