St James, Bramley
St James, Bramley
St James’s is a Grade I parish church on The Street, Bramley, Hampshire, in the Diocese of Winchester. Historic England records a Norman single-cell church with later medieval windows, a brick west tower of 1636 and a south chapel by John Soane.
- Location
- Bramley, Hampshire
- Country
- England
- County
- Hampshire
- City / town
- Bramley
- Address
- The Street, Bramley, Hampshire, RG26 5DQ
- Postcode
- RG26 5DQ
- Built
- C12 nave and chancel; west tower 1636; Brocas Aisle 1801–02; south porch 1806
- Architect
- John Soane (Brocas Aisle); G G Scott junior (1877–78); Temple Moore (1884–91)
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- James
- Diocese
- Winchester
- Parish
- Bramley
- Grade
- I
- Style
- Norman; later medieval and Georgian additions
- Materials
- Flint walls with stone dressings (part rendered); red brick tower, porch and Brocas Aisle; tiled roof
- Grid reference
- SU 644 589
- Opening hours
- Open daily until 4.30pm.
- Access
- Level access to the main areas
Overview
The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture dates the core to the twelfth century: a continuous nave and chancel under a plaster barrel vault and a double-pitched red-tile roof, with three original north lights of deep roll-ended splays. The south wall retains a blocked Norman doorway, a fourteenth-century three-light window, a priest’s door and a fifteenth-century moulded south door. A fifteenth-century north window holds stained glass of about 1470. Fittings recorded in the listing include a thirteenth-century shaft piscina, a Purbeck font, a seventeenth-century communion rail, a restored fifteenth-century screen, sixteenth-century benches and important wall paintings, among them the murder of Thomas Becket and St Christopher.
The west tower of 1636, in red brick with a crenellated parapet, replaced a timber tower. Harriet Brocas commissioned Soane to rebuild the south chapel (the Brocas Aisle or Lady Chapel) in 1801–02 as a memorial to Sir Bernard Brocas; it has a plaster rib-vault, Flemish glass of about 1500 and a 1777 marble tomb. A brick south porch followed in 1806. A west gallery of 1722 was later strengthened with Ionic piers for an organ of 1884. Restorations by G. G. Scott junior (1877–78) and Temple Moore (1884–91) included Moore’s chancel seats. The church is recorded in Domesday Book.