Description

STRATFORD-UPON-AVON

SP25NW CHURCH LANE, Alveston
604-1/2/276 (East side)
09/02/72 Church of St James

II

Church. 1839. By William Walker. East end added 1876; C20
vestry. Snecked stone with ashlar dressings; tile roof with
enriched crests.
PLAN: 2-bay chancel with north organ loft/vestry and south
chapel; 7-bay nave with south porch and west tower. Details in
Early English style; plinth, sill courses, single-chamfered
windows and coped gables.
EXTERIOR: chancel has offset angle buttresses and gable cross;
east window of 5 stepped lancets, and lancets to north and
south. Organ loft has angle buttresses and stepped triplet of
lancets and gable cross, no sill course; C20 vestry to
re-entrant with straight-headed mullioned windows.
Double-gabled south chapel has 2-light plate tracery windows
and C19 rainwater head; lateral stack. Nave has top cornice,
splayed lancets between shallow offset buttresses; diagonal
buttresses to west. Porch to centre of south side has
double-chamfered pointed entrance, paired doors with Y-tracery
motif. Late C20 entrance to south of tower.
3-stage tower has gabled angle buttresses becoming clasping
buttresses to upper stages; triple-chamfered pointed west
entrance has paired doors with strap hinges, rose window
above; return lancets; 2nd stage has stepped triplets of
lancets below clock faces; top stage has 2-light plate tracery
bell openings, louvred below blind heads; top cornice and
crenellated parapet with plain pinnacles.
INTERIOR: chancel has richly carved arch-braced roof; arch to
organ loft and trefoil-headed credence recess; 2-bay south
arcade with arches dying into jambs and chamfered square pier;
applied arcading to east end has marble shafts and rich
painting; moulded chancel arch. Nave has simple hammer beam
roof; late C20 glazed-in narthex and gallery with earlier
staircase with turned balusters.
FITTINGS: chancel has stalls with tracery to panelled fronts,
and panelling to chapel; altar rail with traceried frieze on
posts. Chapel noted as having re-set C17 panelling. Nave has
rood screen in the style of Bodley and Garner across the width
of the east end incorporating entrances to vestry and chapel,
panels and doors with pierced tracery below open scrolly
tracery panels between shafts supporting coved rood loft with
vine-trail cornice and brattishing; rood to chancel arch has
crucifix with crocketing and fleurs-de-lys and figures of Our
Lady and St John; painted latin texts to coving; C19 font in
narthex.
MEMORIALS: several interesting wall tablets including tablet
to 3 women who died from the effects of sleeping in a room
with a coke fire, 1835-6, and 2 richly carved Gothic style
tablets dated 1848 and 1872. Wall painting: chancel has
figures flanking east window, possibly remaining from more
extensive scheme; nave has painting to chancel arch and 4
flanking shields.
A replacement for the original Church of St James to the NW of
the village, of which the chancel remains (qv).
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Warwickshire: London: 1966-:
65).

Listing NGR: SP2319256349

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26499865

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

• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Old House Care and Repair