Church of Saint James the Great

The Church of Saint James the Great is a memorial church built in a simple Early Gothic style. It dates to the 18th century and features a nave and chancel unified by the position of the gabled bellcote and a strongly projecting stepped buttress on the north wall, with a similar buttress on the south wall supporting a lean-to vestry to the east. The bellcote has paired chamfered arches and an inset quatrefoil. The exterior is constructed of rough rubble laid in irregular courses, with sandstone ashlar dressings and tooled angle quoins; the roof is graded green slate with coped gables surmounted by cross finials. A porch on the northwest angle has a coped gabled roof and a double-chamfered archway, with an impost band continuing as a sill band to the west windows. An inner doorway has a roll-moulded arch. The west end features paired lancet windows and a recessed plate-traceried rose-window with a strongly moulded surround. There are three windows on the south side of the nave, all with two lights of plate tracery, each distinctively detailed, and joined by a continuous sill band. The lean-to vestry to the south of the chancel has a simply moulded arched doorway and a stack with a cylindrical shaft. The chancel has a stepped triple-lancet east window, paired lancet windows to the north, and two-light plate-traceried windows in the north wall of the nave, all again differently detailed and with a continuous sill band, dropped to a lower level for the nave windows beyond the buttress.

The church’s design is coherent and integrated, complemented by fine contemporary fittings. The 4-bay nave has scissor-braced rafters and chamfered principal roof trusses, sprung from wall-posts carried on plain corbel blocks. Windows have deep splayed cavetto-moulded chamfered arches, and the northwest doorway has a stilted arch. A double roll-moulded arch defines the chancel, with an angle shaft to the outer arch and an engaged shaft to the inner arch, both with plain block abaci. The chancel roof is of two bays, matching the nave. The chancel is raised two steps, tiled with blue and gold tiles bearing lettered text. A pulpit stands at one side of the chancel arch, featuring simple trefoiled panels with pierced decoration. The chancel floor is laid with red, gold, and black encaustic tiles diagonally, while the sanctuary has richer floor tiles incorporating emblems of the Evangelists, and is also raised two steps with tiled text. A reredos features diagonally laid tiles with an embossed pattern, including fleurs-de-lys. The piscina and sedilia are paired: the piscina has a roll-moulded trefoiled arch carried on slender shafts, while the reredos has paired trefoiled arches set beneath a roll-moulded arch with a rectangular hood-mould above. The east window is set within an arch with engaged shafts and inset trefoils in the spandrels. Contemporary communion rails feature ironwork with slender twisted shafts carrying gilded scrolls to support a moulded wood rail. Choir stalls have similar, though simplified, detail, including twisted brass candelabra (now converted to electric light fittings). Similar fittings are present in the nave benches. The font at the west end of the nave has an octagonal basin with lettering and a band of entwined lilies in relief, and a cover with wrought iron scrollwork. Stained glass by O’Connor is found in the east window.