Description

ST 45 NW WINSCOMBE CHURCH LANE 3/7 Winscombe 9.2.61 Church of St James

G.V. I Parish Church of St James the Great. Originally C.13 now C.15, restoration and Chancel of 1863, some C.20 restoration. A nearly complete perpendicular church, chancel rebuilt Early English. Coursed ashlar, some rubble, mainly in south aisle and chancel, freestone dressings: leaded roofs. West tower, nave, north aisle, north porch, south aisle, chancel, north and south chapels. 4 stage tower with set back buttresses connected across the diagonal and full height half-hexagon stair turret. First stage has heavily moulded pointed west door, string and restored west window. Second stage has part closed 2 light windows on moulded cills with lozenge stops. To west, one light has carved lily and vase on either side as crocketed niches, now empty, a residual Annunciation. To east one niche contains statue of St James. Third stage has 2-light blank windows. Buttresses become diagonal and slighter, then crocketed corner pinnacles. At fourth stage, three 2-light windows per side are divided by plain shafts which rise to subsidiary pinnacles. Outer lights blank, centred pair louvred. Quatrefoil pierced parapet. Stair turret rises higher, capped and crocketed at north-east corner. 2 storey north porch has 3-light cusped window under dripmould. Spiral stair in eastern polygonal turret leads to first floor (timbers being replaced 1983). North aisle and chapel have pierced parapet, quatrefoils in lozenges, which rises at each end as for pitched roof. South aisle and chapel have parapet pierced by trefoils in triangles. Rood stair in polygonal turret with panelled and crocketed pyramidal cap. Blocked west door. Plain chancel with 3-light lancet window. Interior: 5 bay arcaded nave, quatrefoil shafts with hollow waves, plain circular capitals apart from stiff leaf capitals at north of chancel arch and south of north chapel arch. Lierne vault to tower. Nave has victorian timber roof with mock hammerbeams with pairs of angels. Panelled timber roof to chapels and north aisle is original. South aisle retains angel corbels. Plain chancel of 1863. Glass: East window of north chapel has a good C.15 crucifixion group. (Restored 1850). Similar glass in chapel's north window includes made up figures as does a contemporary group in the easternmost window of the south aisle. Chancel north window given by Peter Carslegh and with the 3 St Peters is early C.16 with some Renaissance detail, putti and fleur-de-lys. South window has C.19 pictorial glass. Glass in the chancel east lancets of pre-Raphaelite appearance is by W G Saunder, dated 1863. Fittings: good, straight benches with traceried ends. C.13 font of heavy circular plinth and capital form in south aisle. Grand victorian two-tier brass chandelier in nave. Monuments: 1. Chancel south wall, plain tablet, M Taylor 1701. 2. South aisle, 2 tablets, weeping women on darker ground, 1791 and 1823. 3. Tower, 8 tablets, late C.18/C,19, draped urns on darker ground - several to Knollis family, Sources: Pevsner: BoE), North Somerset and Bristol. Woodforde: Stained glass in Somerset. Harrison: Victorian stained glass. Wright: Church Towers of Somerset.

Listing NGR: ST4114856654

External Links

• Church of St James, Winscombe at Wikipedia
• Church of St James, Winscombe official website
• Wikidata Q5117432

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.

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