St James, Draycot Cerne
St James, Draycot Cerne
St James is a Grade II* former estate church in the parkland of the demolished Draycot House, now in the civil parish of Sutton Benger, Wiltshire. It was declared redundant in 1994 and vested in the Churches Conservation Trust in 1995.
- Location
- Draycot Cerne, Wiltshire
- Country
- England
- County
- Wiltshire
- City / town
- Draycot Cerne
- Address
- Draycot Cerne, Wiltshire, SN15 5LG
- Postcode
- SN15 5LG
- Built
- c.1300 with C16 west tower; mid-C19 alterations
- Denomination
- Churches Conservation Trust
- Dedication
- James
- Grade
- II*
- Style
- Early Decorated with Perpendicular tower
- Materials
- Rubble stone with ashlar tower and stone slate roof
- Opening hours
- Keyholder nearby; ring 01249 750649 in advance.
- Access
- Level access to the main areas
Overview
Historic England describes an Anglican parish church of about 1300 with a sixteenth-century west tower, altered in the mid nineteenth century, in rubble stone with an ashlar tower, stone slate roof and coped gables. The plan is tower, nave, south porch, a north family chapel of the Long and Wellesley families, and chancel. The plain two-stage tower has diagonal buttresses, a three-light Perpendicular west window, flat-headed bell-openings and a north-east octagonal stair turret. Nave details are of about 1300 and the fourteenth century; the fifteenth-century porch has a sundial finial.
The interior retains a complete set of early nineteenth-century Gothic panelled box pews and a two-decker pulpit. The family chapel has coved plasterwork and a secret door in the Gothic panelling. Chancel fittings include stained glass of about 1860 in the side windows and an east window of about 1880, with monuments to the estate owners. Wiltshire Community History notes that Francis Kilvert described skating on the lake at New Year 1870, and that the house stood so close the church was known as the church in the garden.