Church Of St James

The Church of St James at Quedgeley is a parish church of 14th-century origin that was heavily restored and rebuilt in 1857 by H. Woodyer, with further alterations around 1890 by S. Gambier-Parry. The building is constructed of limestone ashlar with a stone slate roof.

The church comprises a nave with a north aisle and south chapel, a south tower and porch, a north organ transept and vestry, and a chancel. The south doorway to the tower is a moulded pointed-arched opening from the 14th century with a plank door. A 19th-century timber-framed south porch with a pointed-arched doorway is flanked by leaded lancets that continue to the sides, with ashlar base walls.

The two-stage south tower features a broach spire with a single diagonal offset buttress and a square stair turret to the west. The tower stair doorway has a diagonal set shouldered-arched opening with a plank door. Above the string course are chamfered square openings, and the belfry stage has two-light lancet openings with stone louvres. Four small lucarnes pierce the spire.

The south chapel displays diagonal offset buttresses at its east end. Its south wall contains a two-light Decorated window with quatrefoil tracery, and the gabled east end also features similar tracery. The 19th-century restored west end has a parapet gable with buttresses and carries a re-set medieval carved grotesque mounted on the valley parapet. The west nave window is three-light with Decorated tracery, as is the two-light window to the north aisle.

The north aisle has diagonal offset corner buttresses at its ends, a moulded pointed-arched north doorway with a plank door, and square-headed aisle windows with fluid Decorated tracery: three-light to the left of the door and two-light to the right. The gable end of the organ transept is flush with the north aisle and contains a two-light window. The vestry to its left has a lean-to roof extending from the chancel and transept. The 19th-century east window is three-light with reticulated tracery. The south chancel wall has three windows of differing designs. An externally projecting squint from the south chapel has a coped top.

The restored interior has plastered walls throughout. Several orders of chamfered arches connect the tower to the nave, with a similar archway between the south chapel and tower. A lower pointed arch connects the south chapel to the nave. The nave has a wagon roof incorporating reused timbers.

The north aisle arcade comprises three bays in late 13th-century style with round columns having moulded capitals and bases. The aisle roof is a four-bay scissor and collar-braced trussed design. The south chapel has a timber-panelled barrel roof with carved bosses and coats of arms. A 19th-century chancel arch includes squints to left and right; the left squint serves as access to the organ with a two-light opening to the north aisle. A paired shouldered-arched opening between the chancel and organ chamber with a slender central column is an addition by Gambier-Parry. Tiled steps lead to the altar, which has a carved reredos reproducing the Last Supper. The chancel roof is timber-panelled.

A 16th-century carved hexagonal timber pulpit front stands on a 19th-century stone base. Below the tower is a 19th-century octagonal stone font with coloured stone inlay, containing a cylindrical lead font. The church retains 19th-century choir stalls and pews.

The church contains numerous memorials. A Baroque memorial on the south chapel wall has a scrolled pediment above twisted Ionic columns with a bolection-moulded inscription panel in Latin to 'Gulielmi Hayward' (died 1684). A pedimented memorial on the east chapel wall commemorates Margaret Berrow (died 1717), and another memorial with a shrouded urn above records Francis Hayward (died 1787). The south chapel contains memorials to many members of the Berrow, Hayward, and Curtis Hayward families. A memorial tablet reset over the south doorway bears crude capitals inscribed to Rychard Berow (died 1562). The south nave wall displays a memorial with two urns on an obelisk ground inscribed to Tho: Hayward (died 1781). A small memorial brass on the south chancel wall is engraved in Gothic script to Frideswide and Mary Porter (dated 1532).

The west window contains stained glass by Kempe. Medieval glass fragments survive in the south chapel window, and other stained glass is mostly early 20th-century. The picturesque effect of the church is reinforced by Woodyer's 19th-century rebuilding.