Church Of St James

Church of St James

This is a substantial parish church of medieval origins, substantially rebuilt in the 19th century. The building dates from the 13th and 14th centuries, with major reconstruction of the nave and aisles undertaken in 1841–42, and the vestry rebuilt in 1888. It is constructed of limestone ashlar, with lead roofs throughout.

The church comprises an aisled nave, chancel, vestry, and a prominent west tower. The chancel's south elevation displays two tall 14th-century two-light windows with geometrical tracery and transoms, separated by a priest door and flanked by single-stage buttresses. A shallow gabled roof with plain ashlar parapet and finial crowns this elevation. The chancel's outstanding feature is a fine 14th-century five-light east window with geometrical tracery. The north elevation of the chancel features a single tall 14th-century window similar to those on the south face. A lean-to vestry is attached to the right, with a two-window range of two-light square-headed windows and a door in the return wall.

The south aisle presents a four-window range of 19th-century tall two-light windows with plain tracery and carved label stops, separated by two-stage ashlar buttresses. The lean-to roof has plain ashlar parapets and blank east and west elevations. The north aisle is similar. The nave clerestory is a four-window range of 19th-century two-light windows with four-centred arch heads, beneath a shallow gabled roof with plain ashlar parapets and a 20th-century ashlar stack at the south-east corner.

The west tower is the most architecturally ambitious element, rising through five irregular stages with a plinth and four-stage clasping buttresses to the lower four stages. The west door has a two-centred arch head with deeply splayed roll mouldings; above it sits a two-light window under a four-centred arch head with carved label stops. A single-light window lights the west face of the fourth stage. Two-light bell-chamber openings with cusping and geometrical tracery face each direction of the upper stage. A quatrefoil and diamond frieze with central gargoyles supports a corbel table and castellated parapet. The tower culminates in a set-back octagonal ashlar spire with three tiers of lucarnes. A flat stair turret with lean-to roof is attached to the north-east corner of the lower four stages, featuring a small doorway with four-centred arch head and two small quatrefoil windows. Various 19th-century memorial tablets are affixed to the external walls.

Interior

The four-bay nave arcade comprises tall 19th-century Perpendicular-style arches carried on quatrefoil piers with central bands corresponding with the gallery underside. A similar 19th-century chancel arch has triple-shafted responds. The tower arch, of 14th-century date, displays triple chamfering and polygonal responds. Some 19th-century carved label stops embellish the nave and aisles. A 19th-century chamfered and moulded arch with plain responds, between chancel and vestry, houses the organ. The gallery encircles three sides of the nave and dates to circa 1841–42, with a panelled front supported by cast-iron columns, some incorporating caryatids. The chancel roof retains some original moulded beams; nave and aisle roofs are 19th-century. Staircases to the gallery, to the rear of the aisles, have stick balustrades. A double piscina with central column and quatrefoil sits to the right of the altar, alongside triple sedilia with cusped and crocketed ogee heads and cluster shafts. The chancel screen, panelling, choir stalls, and reredos are all 19th-century works. Box pews occupy the gallery. A porch beneath the west tower contains a 19th-century glazed draught lobby with Gothick glazing bars.

Monuments and Fittings

The church contains the arms of Sir John Washington, a 17th-century Mayor of Thrapston and ancestor of George Washington, said to have been reset from Montague House and numbers 3–5 Chancery Lane. Various 18th-century inscribed tablets occupy the floor of the chancel. A marble tablet to Elizabeth Darnell (died 1831) and her daughter, in the chancel, bears a seated figure holding a medallion, executed by E. Physick. Two early 19th-century inscribed brass tablets are present, along with various early to mid-19th-century inscribed marble tablets on the walls of chancel and nave.

The stained glass includes a fragment of pre-19th-century glass in the south-west chancel window, a window by Wailes from 1863 in the east window, and a 19th-century window in the south-east chancel. A 19th-century octagonal font is also present. A tablet at the rear of the nave records the rebuilding of circa 1842 and the increase in seating, noting that a grant was obtained for this work from the Incorporated Society for the Enlargement of Buildings and Repair of Churches.