Building record 0153600000 - ST JAMES' CHURCH

Grade I Parish Church. C14 restored 1853. Limestone, cruciform plan with central tower crowned by small lead spire. Aisles of nave raised up, C16 or possibly in C17 to house galleries, lit by upper windows of late Perp. style. Other windows C14 and C15 traceried. Flat lead roof, parapets, that to tower with corbel table. Chancel roof slate. Modern timber N. porch. Interior: very finely moulded chunch nave arcades of 4 bays, and crossing arches. S. Transept has 2 ornamental ogee arched doorways. Nave roof of low pitch with moulded timbers of C15 and C16 or 17. Font: Norman tub shaped with cable mouldings. Traces of wall painting, 14th century floor tiles. RCHM I p.47 MON.1 (B11).
Watching brief carried out by Jonathan Parkhouse in March 1997 during service trenching recorded a number of disarticulated human bones and a single sherd of undiagnostic pottery, but no other finds and no features or burials were disturbed (B12).



The Parish Church of St James is built of limestone rubble, covered with rough-cast. The roofs are of lead, except that of the chancel which is covered with slate. The church is of cruciform plan, and was built early in the C14th. The chancel and central tower, which are the earliest parts, are deflected slightly towards the North from the axis of the nave, possibly indicating the existence of a former building of which no trace remains in the fabric of the building, but there is a Norman font. The nave, North and South aisles appear to have been completed before the transepts. Late in the C15th or early in the C16th, flat roofs replaced the former high-pitched roofs. The North and South walls of the aisles were heightened, and clerestory windows were inserted in them. Other windows were inserted and altered in the C15th and C17th. The C15th embattled parapets of the transepts, of an earlier date than the clerestory windows, have been destroyed, except for a part that has been enclosed at the East end of the North aisle. The plan remains entirely unaltered, except for the addition of a modern North porch. The whole building was restored in 1853, many of the windows were repaired externally with cement, and the roofs of the chancel and transepts renewed. The church is a good example of C14th architecture, and the carved doorways in the South transept are especially worthy of note. The paten is a rare survival of C14th church plate (B4).
Parish Church of St James. In addition to the above information, there are also traces of wall-painting, and the tub-shaped font with cable mouldings is probably early C12th. The chapel of Bierton originaly belonged to the prebend of Aylesbury, but in 1266 was granted to the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln (B5, B7, B11).

This record includes National Record of the Historic Environment Information provided by Historic England on 4 June 2025 licensed under the Open Government Licence.