Description

SE 11 SW MELTHAM MILLS ROAD (Meltham Mills) 2/33 Church of St. James 6th April 1967 II

Gothic Revival Church. 1845 by J P Pritchett. Endowed and founded by James Brook of Thorparch. Dressed stone with ashlar dressings. Pitched slate roof with gable copings. Cruciform plan with square west tower with slender, octagonal stone spire. Chancel with side bays. South porch on south transept. Square porch on south side of tower. Bay divisions marked by buttresses. Angle buttresses to corners surmounted by tall pinnacles. 4-bay nave, transepts are 2 bays deep, 2-bay chancel under which, at east end, is arched slype with foiled window openings. Vault under chancel with arched entrance on east side. Single bay to each side of chancel containing vestry and organ. Slender 2-light lancets with cusped heads and hood moulds to nave. Similar north and south 3-light window to transepts. Single and 2-light traceried windows with cambered heads to chancel and side bays. East window is 3-light with cusped lights and two quatrefoils in head. 2-tier tower with diagonal buttresses and crenellated ashlar parapet with crocketted pinnacles. Simple 2-light bell chamber openings, and slender 2-light lancets with transom to lower tier, all with hood moulds with mask-like faces as stops.

Interior: gallery to west, and north and south transepts, the latter now gone. Those to north and south were presumably later than 1853 since they part obscure wall memorials, one of that date. Galleries were reached from the outside. Chancel and transept arches on clustered responds. Diagonally crossbraced roof with carved bosses,

Carved oak reredos, pulpit, reading desk and good. eagle lecturn. Memorial to James Brook of Thorparch, 1845, by E G Physick, a marble relief depicting mother and child and departing husband. Also by E G Physick, 1855, a memorial to Charlotte and William Leigh Brook of Meltham Hall, a marble relief of lamenting women. A memoral to James Brook of Thornton Lodge, died 1840, by H Mares.

N. P.evsner, The Buildings of England, 1967. D. Linstrum, West Yorkshire Architects and Architecture, 1978.

Listing NGR: SE1077410895

External Links

• Wikidata Q26428042

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Recommended Books

• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
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  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
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  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper