Church of St James

Details

SK 30 SW TWYCROSS CHURCH STREET (north side) 4/108

7.11.66 Church of St. James

GV I

Parish church. Early C14 with C15 west tower and clerestorey; restored 1840. West tower, 5-bay nave and chancel in one with north aisle, south porch and north-west vestry. West tower: 3 stages with offsets, diagonal buttresses, hollow chamfered parapet string and crenellated parapet. Pointed west door with roll-moulded edge to a hollowed surround, and a hood mould terminating in heads. Directly above is a 2-centred window with 3 cinquefoil-headed lights and Perpendicular tracery, and a hood-mould terminating in heads. The belfry openings each have 2 trefoil-headed lights and a quatrefoil in the central spandrel. The nave has a C19 gabled south porch with rendered walls, diagonal buttresses, and a pointed doorway. The westernmost window on this side is pointed and contains Y-tracery, the next window is also pointed and has 3 cinquefoil-headed lights, but the two chancel windows are square-headed and transomed and each has 2 ogee trefoil-headed lights and the beginnings of reticulated tracery (c.f. Church of St. Edith, Orton-on-the-Hill, Twycross c.p.). These two bays are built of coursed rubble as opposed to the large dressed freestone blocks of the nave, though the upper courses are of the latter material demonstrating that the chancel is stratigraphically earlier than the rest of the building. Between the two chancel windows is a pointed door with chamfered surround, and hood mould ending in carved heads. Plain parapet with hollow moulded string and a gargoyle above the priest's door. The east window of the north aisle has 3 trefoil-headed lights and reticulated tracery, and a hood-mould without stops. All the windows of the north side have square heads and the beginnings of reticulated tracery. 4 square-headed clerestorey windows, each of 2 trefoil-headed lights with sunken spandrels. Blocked north door with pointed arch, ogee-moulded surround and hood mould. The Vestry is in the angle between the tower and aisle. It has 2-light windows like those on the north side and a C19 pointed door. Interior: No structural division between nave and chancel. 5-bay arcade of tall pointed arches on slender columns without capitals, but a continuously moulded surround of ogee section. Between the chancel and the eastern bay of the north aisle, which appears to have been a chapel, is a 4-centred archway with similar mouldings to those of the nave arcade. C19 nave and chancel roof with arch-braced tie beams springing from wooden corbels to form 4-centred arches. On the soffit of each tie beam is a carved boss. Lean-to aisle roof, probably C19. In the south wall of the nave at first floor level is a doorway which communicated with a former rood loft. Fixtures and fittings: C18/early C19 west gallery carried on Tuscan columns. It holds contemporary benches and extends over the west end of the north aisle. A staircase with column on vase balusters ascends to it from the nave. The front of the gallery bears a royal coat of arms of 1840. C14 octagonal font with trefoil-headed panels around the pedestal and quatrefoil panels around the basin. The Howe family box pews occupy the east bay of the north aisle; an attached brass plate commemorates the reopening of the church in 1840 after repairs and enlargement undertaken at the expense of Earl Howe. Stained glass: The east window was presented to the church by Sir Walter Waller in 1840. In the centre light the panel showing the Presentation in the Temple was originally in the Lady Chapel of St. Denis, near Paris (c. 1145). Below it are Christ taken down from the Cross and the spies carrying the grapes on their return from the promised land; both are from the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris of 1243-8. More glass from Sainte-Chapelle is to be found in the lower panels of the flanking lights. To the north, the People before Moses, and below it St. John; the latter originally formed one scene with the bottom panel of the southern light which depicts the Emperor Domitian or possibly the High Priest Aristodemus. Above this panel, Moses and the Ten Commandments, which may have made one scene with its counterpart to the north (the People before Moses) described above. Also on the south side, a kneeling woman, probably from the choir of Le Mans Cathedral, dedicated 1354, and some C14 or C15 glass at the top. The upper panels of the northern light contain C12 or early C13 glass and include a saint and a woman, possibly from St. Julien de Sault. In the east bay of the north aisle is a window of 1840 by T. Willement depicting the royal coat of arms of William IV, and there is some more contemporary heradic glass in one of the south windows, of the nave. B.O.E. pp.413-4.

Listing NGR: SK3387104906

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

188242

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Williamson, E, The Buildings of England: Leicestershire and Rutland, (1984), 413-4

End of official list entry

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