Description

PENSAX CP PENSAX SO 76 NW

6/166 Church of St James

20.10.83

GV II

Parish church. 1832-3 by Thomas Jones on old site; alterations of 1891 by George Vialls. Part ashlar with Welsh slate roof, part snecked rock- faced sandstone with ashlar dressings and plain tiled roofs; parapets at gable ends with cross finials. West tower with south porch, three-bay nave, two-bay chancel with north vestry and organ chamber. Perpendicular style. West window of tower, bell-chamber openings, south entrance and nave windows have hood moulds with large head stops. West tower: 1832; three stages with plinth and three strings; set-back buttresses with off- sets; 3-light west window; second stage has a lancet with a square hood and returns to north and south elevations; belfry stage has 2-light louvred bell-chamber openings; embattled parapet above, now without its corner pinnacles. The tower stairs project to the north-east of the tower and have three loopholes beneath the second stage string and a pair of loop- holes above it at the west side. The tower originally had north and south doorways; surviving south entrance has canted porch of 1891 with a parapet stepped at the centre with a cross finial; the archway beneath has a hood and imposts and a rectangular light with cusped tracery to the left side; within the south entrance has panels of blind tracery in the spandrels within the square hood. Nave: 1832; broad and unaisled with embattled parapet; buttresses with offsets at bay divisions and set-back buttresses at west end; there is a narrow doorway to the tower stairs between the north-west pair of buttresses; both elevations have a 2-light window in their easternmost bay and two 3-light windows. Chancel: 1891; 5-light east window with stepped sill string; two C13 style 2-light windows in south elevation with continuous hood mould; north elevation has a cusped lancet at its eastern end and from western end projects gabled vestry and organ chamber with small hipped-roofed projection to east side; north gable end has two pairs of cusped rectangular lights, a 3-light square- headed window with quatrefoil opening above in the gable apex and a door with a cambered head; steps with spear-headed railings lead down to a basement door; blocked opening in west side and a 2-light and a single-light opening on east side of hipped projection. Interior: round-headed chancel arch of one shafted order and 4-centred tower arch, both of 1891. Nave roof has slender hammer-beam trusses and chancel has a panelled barrel roof. Chancel has a large 4-centred archway into organ chamber and south windows have uncarved blocks for capitals; cusped pointed arched aumbry. Octagonal font of 1832; other fittings of c1891 and slightly influenced by Arts and Crafts Style. Memorials: in tower base is an oval late C18 memorial to the Crump family and an early and mid-C19 memorial to the Clutton and Clutton Brock families. The church includes some remarkably competent and archaeologically accurate Perpendicular detailing for its 1832 date; the windows of the tower and nave are of particular interest in this respect. (BoE, p 234-5).

Listing NGR: SO7232268973

External Links

• Wikidata Q26356761

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Recommended Books

• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments