Cathedral Church of St James
CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST JAMES, ANGEL HILL
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1377001
- Date first listed:
- 07-Aug-1952
- List Entry Name:
- Cathedral Church of St James
- Statutory Address:
- CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST JAMES, ANGEL HILL
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2006-07-14
- Reference:
- IOE01/15176/32
- Rights:
- © Mr Richard Storey. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1377001
- Date first listed:
- 07-Aug-1952
- List Entry Name:
- Cathedral Church of St James
- Statutory Address 1:
- CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST JAMES, ANGEL HILL
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST JAMES, ANGEL HILL
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Suffolk
- District:
- West Suffolk (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Bury St. Edmunds
- National Grid Reference:
- TL 85597 64117
Details
BURY ST EDMUNDS
TL8564SE ANGEL HILL 639-1/8/187 (East side) 07/08/52 Cathedral Church of St James
GV I
Parish church; became the Cathedral church of the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich in 1914. Early C16, on an earlier site; by John Wastell, master mason at the Abbey of St Edmund. C19 alterations by GG Scott, partly replaced by further extensions of 1960-70 by SE Dykes Bower. Faced in coursed squared limestone on the south and west apart from the clerestory which is in rubble flint. A steeply-pitched stone slate roof to the nave. PLAN: nave, north and south aisles, crossing and transepts, chancel and an incomplete central tower. EXTERIOR: cloister range on the north. The nave, begun in 1503, was completed c1550. In 9 bays. A range of eighteen 2-light windows with cusped heads to the clerestory. 9 bays to each aisle with a range of 3-light windows, panelled and cusped, and stepped full-height buttresses between them. Doors below the windows in the 4th and 8th bays. Battlemented parapets. A 5-light transomed window to the embattled west end of each aisle and a very large transomed 7-light west window to the nave with a decorated base. Diagonal buttresses with ornate panelling to the aisles. The pinnacled west gable was designed by Scott, but the chancel, rebuilt to his design in 1865-9, was demolished to make way for the work of the 1960s, still not fully completed. This is in a Tudoresque style using a combination of Clipsham and Doulting stone with flint flushwork panels to the outer walls. INTERIOR of the nave is very high with arcades of 9 bays to north and south. The piers are lozenge-shaped with 4 thin shafts and 4 broad hollows in the diagonals. The brightly-painted roof, replaced by Scott, has arched-braced hammer-beam trusses and is in 18 short bays. Every alternate hammer-beam has a carved figure bearing a shield. A heavily-decorated cornice and frieze. (BOE: Pevsner N: Radcliffe E: Suffolk: London: 1974-: 141).
Listing NGR: TL8559764117
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 466649
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Suffolk, (1974), 141
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 06-Jun-2026 at 17:02:58.
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