Church Of St James

Church of St James, Grafton Underwood

A parish church of late 12th or early 13th century date, with a mid-14th century chancel and later modifications, restored in 1896. The building is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar spire and dressings, some of ironstone. The roofs are Collyweston stone slate to the chancel (steeply pitched with coped gable), porch and lean-to north of tower; the nave and aisle roofs are probably of lead and not visible.

The church comprises a nave and aisles, chancel with north chapel, west tower and spire with a lean-to to the north, and a south porch.

The three-stage west tower has a plain parapet with a single gargoyle to each face. The lowest stage contains a blocked round-headed doorway and a single lancet to the south, a similar lancet to the west, and a lean-to to the north with cusped lancets to north and west. The middle stage has herringbone work to the west and a single lancet to the south. The bell stage displays twin lancets in a just-pointed surround with alternating ironstone and limestone voussoirs to east and west, and 2-light Decorated windows to north and south. The spire is recessed and octagonal with two tiers of lucarnes on the cardinal faces.

The nave and aisles have string courses and plain parapets. Three 2-light square-headed Perpendicular clerestory windows are positioned to north and south. The north aisle has a 3-light Perpendicular window with 4-centred arched head and a simple chamfered arched doorway, blocked on its interior face. The south aisle has similar windows to south and east, and a long porch with a steep ironstone entrance arch of two orders, the inner carried on round shafts, with decorative wooden gate. An arched south doorway of two ornamented hollow-chamfered orders leads to a probably 18th-century panelled door.

The chancel has diagonal buttresses and a 4-light Decorated east window with flowing tracery and transom. On the south side are a 2-light window with uncusped circle in the head and curious open cusping to the lights, a chamfered arched doorway, a 3-light Decorated window with flowing tracery, and a tiny window with two miniature cusped lights. The north side has a more conventional 2-light Decorated window with quatrefoil head and cusped lights. The north chapel has a diagonal buttress, a window of three cusped lights in a square surround to the east, and a 3-light window with 4-centred head to the north.

The interior has a three-bay nave. The north arcade comprises circular piers and square capitals with leaf volutes, square abaci and round arches of two stepped orders with labels. The south arcade has circular piers and circular capitals with stiff-leaf and a band of tiny nail-head decoration, round arches of two orders (one stepped, one chamfered) with labels and head stops. The tower arch is pointed with two stepped orders, the inner on plain almost conical corbels. The chancel arch is pointed with two chamfered orders, the inner carried on corbels with band of nail-head decoration. The roofs are of 19th-century date.

The chancel contains a Perpendicular arch to the north chapel, a Decorated piscina and sedilia with ogee heads, niches to left and right of the east window (that to the left with ogee arch, duck finials, ball flower, and a second plain niche above; that to the right similar but smaller and partly renewed). A very simple arched piscina is located in the south aisle.

The east window contains glass of 1884 by E.R. Suffling, a memorial to John, first Baron Castletown. The south aisle east window contains 20th-century glass, a memorial to United States Army Air Forces units which served at Grafton Underwood airfield in World War II. Other glazing is of diamond pane design. Perpendicular screen bases cross the chancel and north chapel. A panelled pulpit is dated 1728.

Monuments include a tomb chest with Gothic-style brass to Gertrude Fitzpatrick, died 1841, and two large white marble tablets with figurative reliefs by the Westernacotts.