St James Church

St James Church stands on St James Street in Taunton. It is a Grade II* listed building of significant architectural importance.

The church originated in the late 12th century, existing by 1175-86, and was associated with an Augustinian Priory just outside the medieval town defences. It gained parish status in 1539. The building was substantially enlarged and rebuilt during the 19th century, though important 15th-century fabric survives.

The architectural history of the church is one of continuous development. The 15th-century work comprises the nave, chancel, and north aisle, all built in the Somerset Perpendicular style. The south aisle was widened by Richard Carver of Taunton in 1837-8. The most prominent feature, the four-stage Perpendicular tower, was rebuilt almost in replica between 1871-5 by J. Houghton Spencer. The chancel was lengthened and a south chapel added in 1883-4 by George Webber, architect. Further restoration took place in 1902-7.

The building is constructed of grey-brown rubble throughout except for the tower, which is built of Williton red sandstone (though the medieval tower was reportedly limestone). All features are dressed with ham stone, and the roofs are slate.

The plan consists of a west tower, a five-bay nave without clerestory, north and south aisles, a three-bay chancel with organ loft and vestries to the north, and a two-bay chapel on the south.

The tower dominates the church and the district. It is a grand four-stage structure in the Perpendicular style, though overshadowed by the even more magnificent tower of St Mary Magdalene visible to the south. The west face displays a fine four-centred door in a square frame with foliate spandrels and flanking niches. The west window has six lights, one transom, and two mullions reaching to the head of the arch. The angle buttresses feature diagonal braces in the outer angles with a square shaft rising between them, giving them the appearance of setback buttresses. They are decorated with subsidiary pinnacles at each stage and end with paired diagonal pinnacles at the bell stage, similar to Mendip towers such as Shepton Mallet. The second and third stages carry one window in each face, with ogee lights, square labels and diamond stop bars, dating to approximately 1440-90. The third stage has flanking statuary niches on the south face only. The bell stage contains twin bell openings of three lights each with one transom, framed by pilaster-pinnacles. The parapet features a quatrefoil frieze and pierced arcaded merlons with triple angle pinnacles and a subsidiary pinnacle in the centre of each side. The tower design most closely resembles that of Bishop's Lydeard and shows clear relationships with many other West Somerset towers. The pinnacle arrangements did not follow the original design during the 1871-5 rebuild.

The south aisle faces the street and has a gabled porch largely remodelled in 1837, followed by four large Perpendicular windows. To the east are the chapel and projecting chancel, both displaying elaborate neo-Perpendicular windows of 1883-4. A small Tudor door survives at the east end of the south aisle. An open timber cloister walk between this door and the street, possibly dating to the 1880s, connects these elements. The north side is screened from public view. Its west window has four ogee lights in a four-centred head, possibly dating as late as the 1530s. The north and east windows of the aisle indicate a mid-15th-century construction date.

The interior is impressively spacious, accessed through the tower which contains a fine 15th-century fan vault. The tall tower arch displays two wave mouldings separated by a deep curved hollow. The five-bay nave arcades follow the usual Somerset pattern of four hollows and four shafts, with capitals applied to the shafts only. The eastern arches are considerably broader; the arch on the north is an original 15th-century feature, no doubt to provide access to a large north aisle chapel, whilst that on the south was altered to correspond during the 19th century. The north aisle east window has five lights with subreticulated tracery; its sill was dropped to floor level in 1883-4 and tracery added to form an open screen to the organ loft. Barrel vaults with tie-beams run throughout the church, dating to the 19th or early 20th century.

The principal fixtures include an oak pulpit dated 1633, its upper frieze decorated with writhing mermaids and suns, and two tiers of lozenges separated by scrolling foliage. It was repaired and altered in 1884. The octagonal stone font is among the most highly decorated 15th-century fonts in the county, as noted by Pevsner. The thick base is 19th-century, decorated with large foliated quatrefoils on each side. The bowl is straight-sided, with three standing figures under cusped arches on each face, one face featuring instead a Crucifixion. The font has been heavily over-restored in the mid-19th century. A neo-Perpendicular south aisle screen in the style of W.D. Caröe was installed in 1925. The stained glass is exceptionally fine: the east window, dating to approximately 1861-2, is in the style of Clayton & Bell. The south chapel contains some 18th-century armorial glass reset here in 1951. The south aisle has glass dating to 1885-91, one window signed by Swaine Bourne of Birmingham. A highly coloured west window, possibly also by Clayton & Bell, is also present. A notable black and white marble tablet, carved with standing soldiers and military standards and commemorating Colonel Yea who died in 1855 at Sebastopol, was created by Thomas Gaffin of London. Minor early 19th-century tablets appear in the north aisle and chancel. The east end was cleared and carpeted in 1981, and the nave floor was renewed with pews replaced by chairs in 2000-1 to accommodate an Evangelical worship style.

The 19th-century enlargements began around 1836 with a proposal for a gallery over the north aisle only. This was soon revised to include a wider south aisle also with a gallery, creating approximately 300 additional seats. These galleries were removed in 1883. A medieval rood screen that was removed in 1812 is now in the County Museum, Taunton. Richard Carver, an active local architect (c.1792-1862), oversaw the early works, whilst J. Houghton Spencer (died 1914), another prominent local architect, rebuilt the tower.