Church of St James

The Church of St James is a parish church largely dating from the 1881 rebuilding by Browne and Gill in the Gothic style, with a 15th-century tower and later additions by W.D. Caröe in 1915. It is constructed of coursed rubble with slate roofs.

The church comprises a tower, north and south aisles (the southern aisle containing a small Lady Chapel), a nave, a chancel, and a vestry. The tower, of around 1450, is three stages high, with diagonal corner buttresses that rise as pinnacles topped with crocketed finials. The top stage has simple two-light bell openings with dense quatrefoil interlace on each side, and an embattled parapet with blind arcading. The aisles have four bays, featuring two-light windows in the Decorated style, flanked by buttresses, and topped by a pierced quatrefoil parapet. A gabled porch is situated on the south side. There are small paired cusped lights above the clerestory.

The interior is dominated by an arcaded nave, supported by Draycott marble columns. The nave and chancel have wagon roofs. All the stained glass dates from the 1881 rebuild. Memorials from the 18th century are present, notably one under the tower to Richard Hardwick, a local clockmaker, dated 1770, and an earlier memorial to his children from 1738, shaped as a clock. An 18th-century English painting of St James’ Miracle is found in the Lady Chapel.