Church of St James, Pyle with Kenfig

Church of St James, Pyle with Kenfig

This Grade I listed church is built of local limestone rubble with sandstone ashlar dressings and slate roofs. It comprises a nave with an unbuttressed west tower, a chancel with an added 19th-century north vestry, and a south porch. The church is mostly 15th century in date, though the nave shows two phases of construction, using squarer stone on the south side with walls battered at the foot.

The exterior displays typical Perpendicular features. On the south side stands one large three-light Perpendicular window and two two-light square-headed windows; the north wall has three two-light windows. The chancel has one two-light window with a label hood and large square terminals, a blocked priest's door with similar label stop, and a three-light east window, all medieval. Angle buttresses stand at the east end. The roofline is finished with coped gables and stone apex crosses.

The tower has a tall lower stage and a short bell stage with a crenellated parapet on corbels. It features small hollow-chamfered openings and a round-headed west door with wave and hollow chamfer mouldings. A stair extension rises at the southeast corner.

Interior

The nave is tall with plastered walls and an open timber barrel vault with five moulded runners rising from wall plates carved with alternating masks and shields. One shield on the north side towards the west bears the date 1471. The chancel arch has two wave orders dying into square abutments, probably late 15th century. One step up enters the chancel, which is also plastered and has a depressed timber panelled vault with centre and end trusses, added in the 19th century. Two further steps lead to the sanctuary, which has encaustic tiles. Stone corbels flank the east window. In the east nave, stone brackets once supported a wide rood loft with a square opening, probably originally a door, through the chancel wall for viewing the altar. The loft stair was recorded on the north side of the chancel in 1848. A tall tower arch was raised when the upper part was rebuilt in the later 15th century. A four-centred arch leads to the tower stair. A medieval mensa is reused as a threshold.

Fittings

The octagonal gritstone font dates to the 15th or 16th century, decorated with chip-carved roundels alternating with carved triple trees in a type paralleled at Llanharry and Llantrisant. The stem is broached to the medieval base, which has ball motifs on the base chamfer. The pulpit is a part-octagonal composition of mid to late 19th-century date, made of alabaster with Gothic arches meeting at serpentine colonettes at the angles. It is adorned with a limestone figure of St James, and the bookrest is supported by an angel. This pulpit was installed around 1919, replacing a former timber pulpit apparently reached from the chancel by a door opening, and stands on a broached limestone base. A brass sanctuary rail sits on brass-sheathed scrolled stanchions. Linenfold panelling on the east wall displays a gilded and carved wood reredos showing the Crucifixion, a 20th-century memorial gift to Rees Rees. The pews are 19th-century pine.

Monuments

A limestone slab with half-round top commemorates Rees Thomas (died 1680) and his wife (died 1689). A steeply pedimented aedicule with simple side columns flanks a limestone slab to Edward Thomas of Cornely (died 1693) and his wife Ann. On the east wall, a limestone slab with separate semi-circular top marks Joseph Lewis of Pill (died 1698) and his wife Anne (died 1715). In the nave, a white marble oval on black by Rogers commemorates Margaret Collier (died 1847). A white marble oval tablet on black oval honours James Simpson (died 1832) and family. A similar tablet records Margaret Jones (died 1857). A Great War memorial is set on the chancel north wall.

Bell and Glass

One bell is dated 1677.

The east window displays "Light of the World" and "Crucifixion" by Charles Powell of London, 1921. The nave northwest window shows "Good Samaritan" by Karl Parsons, 1931-2, given by the RAOB and noted as good work. The nave northeast window depicts Moses, circa 1922. The nave southeast window shows "David and Jonathan" (1927) by William Glasby of London. The south chancel window displays Saints James and John by ALW, 1950.