Church Of St James

The Church of St James is an Anglican parish church with origins in the 13th century, significantly altered in the early 14th and 15th centuries, and restored in 1842 and 1909. Constructed of Ham stone and local lias stone rubble with Ham ashlar dressings, it has Welsh slate roofs covered by a base course of stone slates, with coped gables to all but the west end of the nave, which is plain. A simple stone bell turret containing two bells stands at the west end. The church follows a three-cell plan, comprising a two-bay chancel, a three-bay nave, a south transept/organ chamber, a north vestry, and a south porch dated 1731.

The chancel features a chamfered plinth, an eaves course, and angled corner buttresses. The east window is a 3-light Y-tracery design, likely from the early 19th century, set within a hollowed recess without a label. A single-light cinquefoil cusped window, also without a label, is located on the north side. To the south is a smaller, similar light toward the west, and a 2-light trefoil-cusped window to the east, lacking labels, with a narrow, chamfered cambered-arched doorway between them. The south transept exhibits a 2-light reticulated window in its south wall, with external ferramenta. In the northeast corner is a splayed adjunct with a boarded door that leads under a simple leaded fanlight with a matching sidelight, all under a flat roof. The porch abuts the transept, displaying a coped gable with a cross finial and a date plaque inscribed "TS/CHW/1731" within an ovolo-mould panel. The pointed archway has a label and a small light in the west wall, with simple interior doorways and bench seating. The west gable features angled corner buttresses. The west window is a 2-light, late 14th/early 15th century traceried design with a square-stop label, and exhibits two deep putlog holes in the adjacent wall. The north wall presents two 18th-century windows, each with three 4-centre-arched lights with carved spandrils set into square-arched wave-mould recesses, lacking labels. The projecting vestry mirrors this design, but with 3-centre-arched heads to its lights, and a doorway on its east side.

Inside the church, the chancel has an arch-braced collar-truss roof, renewed in 1909. Simple C19 fittings are present. A panelled chancel arch from the 15th century spans almost the full width of the nave, with a semi-circular arch leading to the splay and an elliptical arch to the transept. The nave roof follows a similar arch-braced collar-truss design. Nave furniture consists of C19 and C20 pieces, including pews introduced between 1909 and 1935. Traces of painting remain on the chancel arch, and there are also sockets for the former rood screen. The two bells were cast by Thomas Bilbie II, in 1782.