Details
MELSONBY CHURCH ROW
NZ 2008-2108 (north side)
13/155 Church of St James
4.2.69
GV II*
Church. C12 and C13, restored 1870-72. Sandstone rubble with ashlar
dressings, plain tile roofs. West tower, nave with north and south aisles
and south porch, chancel with north vestry. Tower: 3 stages. Moulded
plinth and offsets. Ashlar pilaster buttresses at left corner and in
centre, on lower 2 stage, with chamfered light vent on lowest stage of left
buttress, and lancet window on second stage. 2-light belfry openings in
shafted, pointed-arched surround. C19 corbelled battlemented parapet. West
side of tower: moulded plinth and offsets, corner and central buttresses,
with lancet windows on lowest and second stages of central buttress, with
lozenge-shaped clock above on second stage, and belfry opening as before.
North side of tower: as before, but with lancet window on second stage only
and without clock. East side of tower: belfry opening as before, with
chamfered hoodmould. Nave: 4 bays. C19 porch, gabled and with clasping
buttresses has pointed-arched opening of 2 moulded and shafted orders, 2
lancet windows on each side and inner C12 doorway of 2 moulded, pointed-
arched orders, shafted with worn volutes to capitals. South aisle has
lancet and 2 paired lancet windows, all with hoodmoulds; parapet; to west
and east ends a lancet window with hoodmould. South clerestory: 4 chamfered
round-arched windows with hoodmoulds; cast-iron rainwater heads dated 1871;
C13 mask corbels; parapet. Ashlar coping with gable cross to right. North
aisle: 3 paired lancet windows with hoodmoulds and sill band; parapet;
lancet window to west end. North clerestory: 4 chamfered lancet windows
with hoodmoulds; corbelled parapet. Chancel: 3 bays; plinth; offset at sill
level. Pilaster buttresses in centre and at right end. From left: pointed-
arched window; chamfered pointed-arched priests' door; 3 chamfered lancets
with hoodmoulds and 3 Early English-style image niches; ashlar coping with
gable cross to right. East end: moulded plinth; central pilaster buttress
below window; added diagonal buttress to right; chamfered offset, and
another at sill level; triple lancet windows with stepped hoodmould. North
side of chancel: 3 chamfered lancet windows with hoodmoulds, and with
stepped buttress between second and third windows; chamfered window above
vestry roof. Vestry: probably dating from 1811, has pointed-arched east
window with hoodmould and on north side clasping buttresses, chamfered
doorway to heating chamber and paired lancet windows. Interior: 4-bay north
arcade, with westernmost column of circular plan and others octagonal,
torus-moulded bases and undercut capitals; double-chamfered arches with
hoodmoulds; keeled responds. North clerestory: a pointed window above each
arch, with trefoil inner arches and irregularly splayed reveals. 4-bay
south arcade, with central octagonal pier matching those in north arcade,
the outer 2 of circular plan, with capitals of varying design, including
stiff-leaf and small volutes; double-chamfered pointed arches with
hoodmoulds, the responds not keeled. South clerestory: C19 copies of north
clerestory windows. Tower arch: wide and low, triple-chamfered with
hoodmould, and with heads in angles with arcades, and above it a chamfered
pointed doorway. On 4 inner sides of tower, arches in the walls, perhaps
indicating a vault. Across south-west corner, the stair turret, with low
chamfered doorway. Chancel arch: double-chamfered pointed arch with
hoodmould, keeled responds and water-holding capitals. In chancel, double
aumbry on north side; aumbry on south, and broken piscina with chamfered
reveal and rounded trefoiled niche; image corbel on south side; sill-level
string. In south aisle: mid C14 recess, with steep crocketed canopy with
large apex finial and smaller side pinnacles, the cinquefoiled tracery with
secondary trefoiled cusping, possibly an Easter Sepulchre, perhaps re-set.
C19 roofs, king post in nave, semicircular ribs in chancel. In the tower,
west window deeply splayed, and the sill reusing medieval tombstones with
swords; several carved stones and monuments: on floor, C13 recumbent effigy
of a knight with chain mail coif, sword and shield; a grave cover with
foliated cross out of which emerges the head and praying hands of a man;
pieces of two c800 cross shafts, one with beasts, the other with interlace
motif. Wall monuments commemorating the building of the vestry in 1811 by
Rev Samuel Swire DD Rector, to a design by Rev James Griffith DD, Master of
University College, Oxford; another commemorating his death in 1816; and
others to Mary Swire daughter of John Swire, d1816, to Margaret Cockin d1777
with a long inscription, Roger Swire d1792 and family and an oval plaque to
Jane Higginson d1802.
Listing NGR: NZ2011408444
