Church of St James

Details

FINCHAMPSTEAD CHURCH LANE SU 76 SE 12/1 (west side) 26.1.67 Church of St. James G.V. I Parish church. Dates from C12 with alterations and extensions in C14, C15, C16, C18, C19 and early C20. Part painted stucco with stone dressings to windows, brick tower and old tile roof. Apsidal chancel, 3 bay nave, 3 bay north chapel, north porch and a west tower. The chancel and nave date from the C12 and remaining from that date are 2 round headed windows in the north wall of the nave, an aumbry on the same wall to the right of the entrance, a pillar piscina with fluted capital and octagonal stem on the right side of the chancel apse and a limestone font with a fine bowl with sloping sides enriched with spiral roll and bead ornament; the stem and base are C19. The north chapel has a date and inscription T1590H on the outside of the stone lintel over the old north door, and is approached from the chancel through a 4-centred arched opening of 2 chamfered orders with flattened semi-octagonal responds with plain capitals and bases. The chapel is of more than one date; it has a late C14 window with 2 ogee trefoiled lights under a square head; a C15 east window of 3 similar lights and head; 2 large moulded tie beams in the roof, a similar tie at a higher level with 2 large curved braces supporting the purlins, and part of a large moulded wall plate with a roll mould and chamfer with run out stops. An arcade of 2 bays opens from the nave to the chapel, the eastern and narrower bay with respond and middle pillar is C19; the other bay is similar to the chancel arch which was widened in C15 and has semi-octagonal jambs with moulded capitals and bases. The chancel has a flat ribbed timber roof with foliated bosses adjoining the apse; the nave roof is of vaulted timber with C15 moulded tie beams with moulded bases, 2 of which are missing on the south side. The east window of the nave is C19, the 2 south windows are C14..with 4 trefoiled ogee-headed lights with semi-quatrefoils over, under a square head. The north doorway is probably a C15 insertion and is of a single hollow chamfered order with a 2-centred arch; the gabled porch is C19. The pulpit is C19 with pieces of C15 tracery and cresting. Tower:- is dated 1720, on a panel on the north side, 3 stages, moulded plinth, strings, angled corner buttresses, plain parapet with pyramidal finials on the corners; the belfry windows have brick lattice tracery. There is one C15 stone window of 2 ogee trefoiled lights on the west face, below which is a brick doorway with a door contemporary with the tower under a round arched head. There are two panelled chests preserved in the chancel, one with a sloping lid inscribed 'RH 1614', and another smaller one with the initials and date set with nails 'BL 1690 IT'. Monuments:- In the north chapel is an altar tomb with a black marble top to Richard Palmer of East Court 1670. On the north side of the chancel arch is a bronze tablet to Henry Hinde, Lord of the Manor of Finchampstead East Court, who died in 1580. On the south wall of the nave a small brass to Elizabeth Blighe, 1635 and above this a small brass with the figure of a lady and her child richly dressed. In the chancel floor is a black slab with 2 small brass inscriptions, the upper commemorating Richard Marsh, a citizen and grocer of London, who died in 1613, and the lower inscribed with a set of laudatory verses in Latin. The church was restored in 1858 and again in 1914; it stands high on a mound with fine views to the south from the churchyard. V.C.H. Vol.III p.245. B.0.E. (Berkshire) p.143.

Listing NGR: SU7928563808

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

41543

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Berkshire, (1966), 143
Ditchfield, P H, Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Berkshire, (1906), 245

End of official list entry

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