Church Of St James

The Church of St James is an Anglican parish church, seemingly dating from around 1140. While a portion of the chancel may be 14th century, the tower and nave windows are of late 15th or early 16th century Perpendicular style. The church was altered and enlarged in 1856 and restored between 1863 and 1865 by T. Fulljames. A north aisle and nave arcade were added during the 19th-century work.

The church is constructed of random coursed dressed stone on a chamfered plinth, with ashlar facing to the tower, chancel and north aisle. The nave and south side of the chancel have stone slate roofs; the remainder uses interlocking concrete tiles. Features include coped verges, cross finials, end saddlestones, and a stiff leaf eaves cornice to the chancel.

The west tower has two stages with string courses, stepped diagonal buttresses to the lower stage, and an embattled parapet. Belfry louvres are trefoil-headed. The west side has a chamfered 3-centred archway, with a deeply splayed double trefoil-head light above and a small single light below the first string course; a clockface dated 1887 sits above the string course. The south side of the nave has 3-light Perpendicular windows framing a small, open timber-work gabled porch. The chancel has paired trefoil-head lancets flanking a trefoil-head priest’s door. The north aisle also features paired or triple trefoil-head lancets, and a three-light east window.

Inside, the nave has a four-bay arcade to the north aisle, which has a plain rafter roof. The piers have pierced trefoils set into their angles. A wagon roof covers the nave. The arcade's cylindrical columns have water-holding bases. The chancel roof has arched-braced principals resting on carved stone corbels. The chancel arch contains two elaborate corbels with two small marble columns above. An elaborate stone screen, with a cusped central archway, separates the tower, incorporating flanking stone seats, likely of 19th-century origin. A Caen stone reredos from 1883, originally from St Michael's, Gloucester, and created by H.C. and W.S. Frith, is also present. A Norman font and a Jacobean pulpit complete the interior.