Church Heritage Record 620183

W tower with S porch in base. 6-bay aisleless nave with W narthex and W gallery (within W bay). 3-bay chancel with N and S chapels. Apsidal sanctuary with ambulatory containing vestries.

Databases show many archaeological records within 1km of the site. Finds include Roman coins, medieval fabric but most records relate to C19th industry, railways and collieries such as Monway Colliery and Broadwaters Colliery both to the NW, the later now covered in housing. Railway buildings c.1900 are to the SE. Recommend Heritage Environment Records, including Wolverhampton and Walsall HER, are consulted prior to any works on the site. Burials in the churchyard will have some archaeological implication for changes to the site.

A school was built (which survives opposite the church) in 1845 and services were held there until St James opened in 1848. The foundation stone was laid in 1847 and the completed church with 855 sittings (556 free) cost £3,305. The cost was supported by a grant from the Church Building Commission. A 65ft tower had been intended but there were insufficient funds to complete the vision. Port records in his book that the Board complained that the original plans were to cost £4,000 for 1,000 seats and ‘appeared large’.

St James was built to the designs of William Horton (fl. 1847-55) of Wednesbury in a typical Commissioners’ style. A chancel was added in 1857 by Griffin and Weller, and an apsidal E end in 1865 built in memory of Mrs Twigg, wife of influential minister at the church who died in 1869. An application for another grant towards a north chapel (in memory of Lt Col Bagnall) and vestries was approved 1885-8 to designs of Horton. The chancel was only finally completed in 1881 in memory of Richard Twigg who had held various roles at St James from 1853-79. A south chapel was built in memory of George Silas Guy and Henrietta Maria Guy c.1918?

There are trees on the site, particularly to S boundary.

A large stone building that is difficult to view in one panorama. The church is in the Early English style and has features typical of a Commissioners’ Church. Tall pointed lancet windows mark each bay, divided by 2-tier buttresses with weatherings. A plinth, and a stone cornice continue around the building. The nave has a fairly shallow pitched roof, whilst the chancel at the E end has a higher roofline.

At the W end is a square tower, never completed to its full height, with a pyramidal roof. The base of the tower has a door to the W (and also the S), and a light above, with clock-faces on 3 sides above that. A projection from the west end, with a lower roofline than the nave, clasps the tower on either side. It has a lancet in each of the W elevations, and a door to the S.

A tall, modern brick chimney rises above the boiler room at the E end of the nave on the N side, before the N chapel projects from the N chancel wall. It has a separate, pitched roof with crenelated iron ridge tiles, a W door, and 2 sets of 2 pointed lancet windows beneath hood moulds in the N elevation, and a sexfoil window in the E elevation.

The E end is apsidal, semi-hexagonal, with 2-light windows in each facet. At ground level, ambulatories wrap around the building at the same angle, with a shallow lean-to roof. 3-light windows pierce each facet. There is a N door. A stringcourse continues from the chapel around each of the elevations at the E end, beneath the windows. The stone work at the east end is more ornate than the nave with windows embellished with hoodmoulds and carved stops, and carved decoration to the stone cornice.

On the S side of the chancel, the 2-light windows of the clerestory level can be seen. Also at the E end of the S nave wall, merging into the S ambulatory, is the S chapel, which can be identified by its 2 2-light windows with decorated tracery. There is a S door.

The church is entered from the S door in the base of the W tower where there are ramps in place. Larger W doors in the W elevation of the tower are locked. The porch area in the base of the tower has a WC to the N side. Doors to the E lead into the W narthex beneath the W gallery. It is partitioned with wood and glass from the nave. The roof is a sloping sofit beneath the tiered balcony above which holds the organ and fixed tiered seating. There is a kitchen to the N side and tables are arranged for use for meetings. Access to the gallery is from the SW corner where there is 1 step down before ascending the stone staircase. Black and white tiles pave the central aisle from the W door of the narthex, the full-length to the chancel. In the narthex there is carpet either side of the aisle.

The single roof of the nave is formed of painted wood trusses with a plastered ceiling behind. Ornate circular vents pierce the ceiling at intervals along the centre and circular C19 metal light fittings with trefoils and scrolls are suspended from N and S sides. Aisles are marked out in the seating arrangements. Level boarded floors are either side of paved aisles, and are seated with upholstered wood chairs in the central block, and old wood chairs in the outer aisles. The walls are of painted plaster. There are many statues throughout the interior space and large oil-painted canvases in wood frames on the walls depict the Stations of the Cross. The long pointed windows are glazed with rectangular panes with clear glazing. Small sections of stained glass hang in alternate lights.

The N chapel is a memorial chapel to the N of the chancel, accessible from the E end of the N side of the nave. An external door is behind curtains to the W. It has a steeply pitched roof and 2, 2-light windows in the N wall – the 2-lights are separated by a column with carved capital and surmounting hoodmoulds with floriated stops. Cartwheel window in the gable of the E wall. Wood blocks in herringbone pattern pave the floor. A tile plaque fixed to the W wall records that the foundation stone was laid in 1887, whilst a brass plaque records its construction in memory of John Bagnall, d.1887. Stained glass and statues, and a fine altar (raised on 2 steps) and altarpiece (see details below) enhance and characterise the space and is separated from the chancel by a 3-bay arcade with 2 columns with a decorative wrought-iron screen within the lower sections of the westernmost 2 bays. Figures of angels and saints are fixed to the wall above the altar. A door to the S of the altar leads into the ambulatory.

A second chapel, the Sacrament chapel, to the S side of the chancel, is through a lower pointed arch and is also accessible from the E end of the S aisle. Paved with a chequerboard and chevron grey and white veined marble floor (plus 2 large orange marble slabs) and panelled by carved stone tracery, with metal railings screening the openings around it, the character of the space is ornate and Italianate. The pitched roof is decorated in a Tudor style and painted red. The decorated tracery windows are without precedent anywhere else in the building.  The altar and reredos are all in the same style, creating a complete ensemble.

Hanging from the pointed chancel arch is a suspended rood with Christ with figures on either side. The chancel is raised by 2 slate steps and has a painted pitched roof. Elegant arch-braced trusses with carved spandrels. 3, 2-light trefoil headed windows at clerestory level on either side. Figures of angels and saints, including St David and St George, are mounted within the spandrels above the arcades. They are late C19th and each has a plaque.

The apsidal, semi-octagonal sanctuary opens up beyond a further, high, pointed arch which is raised by 3 steps and carpeted. 2-light windows in each facet. It was added in 1881 as recorded by a brass plaque.

A door to the S leads through to the ambulatory style vestries which wrap around the E end

(where more doors lead to the exterior).