St James' Church

St James' Church, Whaley Bridge

A parish church with a 16th or 17th-century tower, substantially rebuilt in 1825, restored and extended in 1889, and further refurbished in 1922–25.

The tower and part of the nave are built of coursed rubble gritstone with larger quoins, while the remainder uses coursed squared gritstone, all beneath a slate roof with crested ridge tiles to the chancel and organ chamber. The church comprises a nave with west tower, south porch, a lower and narrower chancel with a north-east vestry and south-east organ chamber.

The three-stage tower features diagonal buttresses in its lower stage, a pointed west doorway, and a triangle-headed three-light Perpendicular west window. The middle stage contains only a small light in the west face and a clock face on the south side; above the clock sits the head of a former two-light window with triangle-headed lights and reset later head corbels. The upper stage has two-light openings with Y-tracery below an embattled parapet with pinnacles. The five-bay nave has buttresses with gables and two-light Y-tracery windows of 1825 in freestone surrounds with hood moulds. A south-west porch entrance has a chamfered arch; the similar nave doorway has panel doors of 1825. The chancel contains a three-light window with plate tracery and moulded string below the sill, plus a south lancet window. The gabled south organ chamber has a lancet south window and a tablet in its east wall commemorating the 1889 restoration. The north vestry is also gabled with an end stack and has been extended to the east as a lean-to against the chancel.

Internally, the tall tower arch is plain chamfered and now infilled with a war-memorial screen and glazing. The nave has a six-bay hammerbeam roof on corbelled shafts. The chancel arch is double-chamfered with an inner order on corbels. Walls are plastered and painted; the floor comprises tile and stone paving with floorboards beneath the pews.

The chancel is lined with a panelled dado made in 1694 for the nave but moved to the chancel probably in 1925. Late 17th-century communion rails have turned balusters, and a painted Queen Anne Royal Arms hangs on a wooden board. The pulpit, dated 1904, is an ambitious but restrained alabaster piece with blind arcading and a pedestal of Penzance marble with alabaster steps. Benches with shaped ends probably date from the 1889 restoration; choir stalls belong to the 1925 refurbishment. The font of 1936 is octagonal and carved with the arms of the Jodrell family. Several memorials are present, including 19th-century wall tablets and brasses. The earliest brass commemorates Reverend Edward Potts (died 1755), decorated with skull and cross bones. Another commemorates Michael Heathcote (died 1768), described as 'Gentleman of the Pantry and Yeoman of the Mouth' to George II. A chancel tomb slab installed in 1925 commemorates Jodrell family members dating back to 1375. The Angel of the Resurrection in rich colours in the east window is by Heaton, Butler and Bayne (1889). A south chancel window of 1889 commemorates William Downes (died 1287), said to be the first rector of the church.

Only fragments of the medieval church survive in the tower masonry; Saxon origins have been suggested for some tower fabric. The tower itself was built in the late 16th or 17th century. The remainder was rebuilt in 1825 and restored in 1889 when the chancel was enlarged, though some pre-1825 fittings were retained. The architects of these works are unknown. The vestry was extended in 1922 and the chancel refurbished in 1925.