Church Heritage Record 603078

Nave and chancel, aisles, transepts, vestry and south porch.

Nave 23m long by 20m including aisles. Chancel 10m long by 8m wide.

The church was built in 1878 to designs by the London architects firm Ladds & Powell. This firm is not well known for its ecclesiastical work although St Paul’s in Finchley, North London is a not dissimilar example by Ladds.

The original structure comprised the nave, chancel, north aisle and transept. In 1888 the south aisle, transepts and porch were added and in 1912 further works were undertaken for a new vestry on the north side and the bell turret.

The church of St James has a steeply pitched nave roof and at the north west corner a small open gabled bellcote but otherwise there is little vertical emphasis to this building. The chancel roof is lower than the nave. To the north and south elevations there are wide transepts with separate pitches and low aisles with lean to roofs; the south elevation also has a porch. On the north side of the chancel there is a vestry extension with a catslide roof linking to the transept and on the south side an additional transept.

The west elevation of the church has a three-light stepped window with plain pointed lancets. Beneath the window is a string course and another at midpoint on either side of it continues around to the clearstorey. Above the window are three small circular foiled openings. There are two buttresses at either side of the nave and these each have three weatherings, the uppermost terminating with a small gablet.

The clearstorey has, as mentioned above, a continuous string course around the openings which are simple short lancets. There are six lancets on both the north and south elevations.

The aisles each have a single light in the west end with a simple hood mould and square stops, seen throughout.  The north aisle has three lancets at its eastern end then a door positioned midway between two short buttresses, each with two weatherings.  The doorway is a wide pointed opening with hoodmould over.

The south aisle has the same three lights but incorporates a porch at the western end with a separate pitched roof extending from the aisle. The porch is large and the entrance is from the west. The door is similar to that in the north aisle but approached by three steps. The south face of the porch has two short lancets and a quatrefoil roundel overhead.

The north transept has short buttresses to the north with three weatherings. The north elevation has two lancets and a large roundel above containing four quatrefoils. A continuous stringcourse from the around the aisle windows continues beneath the lancets. The transept is surmounted with a cross finial. To the east, the transept roof links to a flat-roofed vestry alongside the nave by means of a catslide. Beneath the catslide is a small pointed doorway leading into the vestry.

The vestry windows are square headed with three sets of openings along the north wall. The east end has a double and single door side by side painted red. The east wall of the vestry rises slightly to create a gable.

The chancel has single lancets in both the north and south faces and on the east elevation a large four light window. The lights in the east window are equal in height with quatrefoil roundels over each pair and a larger cinquefoil further above.

The south transepts each have a separate pitched roof joined by a valley with a chimney rising from between the two. The easternmost transept is positioned against the chancel wall and has three short lancets, as at the clearstorey, in the eastern elevation. On the gable end there is a window comprising a pair of tall lancets under a pointed arch with a quatrefoil over.

The next transept adjoins the south aisle and has no windows other than to the south gable end. Here the details are similar to the north transept with two separate lancets however overhead the roundel contains three trefoils.

The north door is the main entrance to the church and opens into an internal draught lobby within the aisle. The nave comprises just two bays; the arcade formed of circular columns with simple capitals. The transept arches are wider than the arcade and spring from the arcade capital on cylindrical corbels. The aisles open into the transepts with a further archway.  The easternmost transept on the south side is effectively the organ chamber. The organ pipes fill two arches, into the chancel and into the adjacent transept to the west with panelling below. There are openings within the organ chamber (as described on external aspects) and there appears to be a barrel vaulted roof.

The chancel arch is tall and pointed and stands on slender cylindrical columns. The chancel has been cleared of furniture and is carpeted with a dais extending into the nave with space for demountable rails. The sanctuary area was furnished in the 1950s. There is a shouldered door to the northern vestry and another to the organ chamber.

In the nave there is a dark-stained timber hammer-beam roof. The corbels are of differing lengths and cylindrical with rounded bottoms as seen on the arcade.

The font is positioned centrally at the west end beneath a bright rainbow-coloured window. The floor at the west end has some stone slabs but also the only remaining section on view of the decorative Victorian tiled floor. The rest of the floor has been graduated to meet the dais at the east end and carpeted.

There is a kitchen area contained within the south porch and in the south transept an area of pews has been cleared to give a flexible area of seating.