Church Of St James

The Church of St James is a Grade II listed building located on Main Street in Bilbrough. The church features a 14th-century south-east chapel, while the rest of the structure was built in 1873 by G Fowler Jones. It is constructed from sandstone ashlar with a magnesian limestone plinth, quoins, and window dressings, and the chapel is made of magnesian limestone, topped with a Welsh slate roof.

The church comprises a north-west tower, nave, chancel, north-east vestry, and the south-east chapel, all designed in the Gothic Revival style. The three-stage bell tower includes a north entrance with a single sandstone nook shaft supporting an arch adorned with cogged moulding. The first two stages have slit windows, and the third stage features an ashlar band. Each side has twin round-arched bell openings, with modillion cogged moulding at the heads set in chamfered surrounds.

On the south side, there is a single round-headed window and a pair of round-headed windows, all with similar surrounds to those on the north side. The east end is occupied by a two-bay chapel with centre and diagonal buttresses, featuring two pairs of straight-headed windows with Perpendicular tracery in double-chamfered surrounds. At the west end of the chapel, there is a blocked pointed doorway in a chamfered surround, a single light straight-headed window with Perpendicular tracery, and a recut quatrefoil window above, all in double-chamfered surrounds. The east end of the chapel has three stepped round-arched windows in double-chamfered surrounds, topped by a badly weathered quatrefoil light.

Inside the chapel, there is an altar tomb dedicated to Thomas, 3rd Baron Fairfax, who died in 1671, made of magnesian limestone ashlar and marble, although it was in pieces awaiting restoration at the time of listing. Another tomb from the 16th century, also made of magnesian limestone ashlar, was surrounded by scaffolding at that time. The church is noted in Pevsner's "North Yorkshire, The West Riding" published in 1979.