Church of St James

Details

ODDINGLEY CP CHURCH LANE (south side) SO 95 NW 6/195 (18/1C) Church of St James 14.3.69 GV II*

Parish church. C15, altered C17, restored 1851 by R C Hussey for John H Galton with further alterations in 1860. Lias limestone rubble with sandstone ashlar dressings and plain tiled roofs. West tower, two-bay nave with transepts and south porch, two-bay chancel. Mainly Perpendicular style. West tower: C17; three stages with strings, diagonal buttresses with off-sets at west end; 3-light west window probably original west window of nave reset when the tower was added; second stage has small rectangular lights in its north and south elevations; belfry stage has paired louvred round-headed lights in each eleva- tion; above is a pyramidal roof. Nave: C15; adjacent to the tower are opposed doorways set immediately west of low buttresses not bonded to the nave walls; this suggests that the original nave was longer; windows of nave and transepts are C15, square-headed and restored; north elevation has a 2-light window and the doorway opposing the south entrance is of a single chamfered order with a 4-centred head and is now blocked; the south elevation has a 3-light window with a similar entrance doorway. To the right of the door is a small niche once occupied by a stoup. Transepts both have a gable end 3-light pointed- arched window and a 2-light window in both side elevations; the west window of the north transept is probably a later insertion. South porch: rebuilt 1860; gabled timber-framed on sandstone base; moulded pierced and scalloped barge- boards, arch-braced roof trusses and 5-light splayed wood-mullioned openings each side. Chancel: rebuilt 1861; 3-light C19 east window with 4-centred head; north elevation has a 2-light window and south elevation has a 2-light western- most window, a rectangular light and between them a door with a 4-centred head; all is reset C15 work. Interior: pointed tower arch and north transept arch; no chancel arch but walls return on both sides to walls of wider nave; south transept has a C15 moulded timber archway, the east post stands short of the east jamb providing access to the pulpit and probably originally to provide space for the roof-loft stair. Roofs are C19 and plastered with ornamental arch-braced collar trusses. In the chancel two moulded corbels flank the east window; pointed-arched piscina with corbelled basin; C17 altar rails. The font is recut C15 work, octagonal with alternating roses and fetterlocks carved on the lower edge of the basin. Oak pews are made up of re-used C17 woodwork. C15 dug-out parish chest in south porch and also C17 dug-out parish chest in tower. Memorials: mid-C19 wall memorial in chancel to the Tookey family by P Hollins; mid-C19 brass in nave to Robert Cameron Galton formerly in Hadzor church; three ledger slabs in chancel, one to John Crump, died 1657, one very worn slab to Bridget Patrick, died 1967, and one to George Parker, a rector murdered in 1806. Glass: fragments of C15 glass in chancel east window, north window and south-east window. Although much restored this small church retains a number of C15 features of particular interest. (VCH 3 (ii) p 459-60; BoE, p 227-8).

Listing NGR: SO9144859050

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

147871

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Doubleday, AH, Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Worcester, (1913), 459-60
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Worcestershire, (1968), 227-8

End of official list entry

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