St James, Avebury

St James’s is a Grade I parish church on the High Street at Avebury, Wiltshire, just west of the prehistoric henge, in the Diocese of Salisbury and the Kennet 8 benefice.

Overview

Historic England lists an Anglican parish church of the tenth century with late-twelfth, thirteenth-, fourteenth- and fifteenth-century work, alterations of 1812, and a chancel restored in 1879 by R. J. Withers. The fabric is dispersed sarsen and flint with limestone dressings and an ashlar west tower. The tall, narrow nave is late Anglo-Saxon: two single-chamfered ground-floor windows rebated for shutters survive at the west end, and three of four original circular clerestory windows remain. Twelfth-century arcades were later raised on tall Tuscan columns in 1812. The south doorway is a fine late-twelfth-century reset inner door with chevron and nailhead. The three-stage Perpendicular west tower has angle buttresses and a south-east stair rising above a crenellated parapet.

Fittings include a twelfth-century barrel font with a bishop holding a crozier between dragons, and a rare complete fifteenth-century rood loft with coloured and gilded panelling over a nineteenth-century screen. Anglo-Saxon sculpture is reset in the porch and in the west wall of the nave. The church stands beside Avebury Manor, within the World Heritage landscape.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1193084
• Kennet 8: St James, Avebury
• CRSBI: St James, Avebury