Description

BARROW IN FURNESS

SD16NE BLAKE STREET
708-1/5/31 (North West side)
06/05/76 Church of St James

II*

Church. 1867-69. By EG Paley, vestry added 1883. Red brick
with blue brick patterning; ashlar sandstone dressings and
spire; green slate roof.
6-bay nave with lean-to aisles and south porch; polygonal apse
to chancel with 4-stage tower and spire on south side, organ
chamber to north and vestry at end of corridor wing projecting
east. Gothic Revival style: Geometrical and plate tracery.
Orientated NE/SW, ritual orientation used here.
Nave: chamfered plinth; offset buttresses between bays;
2-light windows with cusping, plate tracery, head-carved
hoodmould stops and blue-brick relieving arches. Porch to bay
2: red sandstone colonnettes to enriched moulded arch,
head-carved hoodmould stops, plainer arch within, 2-light side
windows; steep gable with copings and cross.
Clerestorey: pilaster strips between 2-light windows with
colonnettes; brick cogging; ashlar gutter. Buttresses flank
west window of 6 lights with king mullion, rose and hoodmould;
blue-brick patterning on steep gable, ashlar copings.
Tower: chamfered plinth, pilaster buttresses ending in offsets
above 3rd stage. Colonnettes to trefoiled south door under
arch with nailhead and hoodmould with angel stops; gablet
over. 2-light window to east side. 2nd stage has trefoiled
3-light windows in arcading with continuous hoodmoulds;
lancets to 3rd stage. Ashlar offset below louvred, 3-light
belfry openings having impost band and tracery under pointed
arches with hoodmoulds. Octagonal spire springs from gables
with low-set splays between; lucarnes and weathervane.
Chancel: lower; apse has buttress and plain east window
flanked by traceried 2-light windows; carved eaves to hipped
roof with cross. Organ chamber with rose window and 2-flue
stack on north gable. Vestry, further east than the apse, has
pointed door and window of 2 rounded lights to south; brick
stack on left.
INTERIOR: arcades have quatrefoil, sandstone piers and brick
arches with ashlar hood-moulds; painted brickwork above.
Composite roof of king-post and scissor-braced trusses.
Alabaster font and arcaded, alabaster pulpit on sandstone
plinth. Stalls at west end, the central 3 with crocketed
canopies. Organ rebuilt from that purchased for St James'
Palace by William IV in 1837, the makers Hill and Davison;
used at the wedding of Queen Victoria in 1840 but disposed of
in 1866 and brought to Barrow 1868.
HJ Austin joined EG Paley in 1868 and the final scheme here is
likely to show his influence. 'The best church in Barrow'
(Pevsner); the brick arcading ahead of its time and probably
inspired by GE Street.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Lancashire: London:
1969-: 33, 56).

Listing NGR: SD1946069944

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St. James' Church, Barrow-in-Furness at Wikipedia
• St. James' Church, Barrow-in-Furness official website
• Wikidata Q7588388

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]