St James the Great, Colwall
St James the Great, Colwall
St James the Great is a Grade II* parish church on Mill Lane in Colwall, Herefordshire, in the Diocese of Hereford.
- Location
- Colwall, Herefordshire
- Country
- England
- County
- Herefordshire
- City / town
- Colwall
- Address
- Mill Lane, Colwall, Herefordshire, WR13 6HJ
- Postcode
- WR13 6HJ
- Built
- C12; additions by H Woodyer 1865; north arcade 1880
- Architect
- H Woodyer (chancel and vestry 1865)
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- James the Great
- Diocese
- Hereford
- Parish
- Colwall with Upper Colwall
- Grade
- II*
- Style
- Norman and Gothic
- Materials
- Grey, brown and red sandstone; tiled roofs
- Grid reference
- SO 739 423
- Opening hours
- Open all day every day from 8am to 730pm, or dusk if earlier.
- Access
- Ramp or level access available on request
Overview
Historic England records a church of the twelfth century with additions by H. Woodyer in 1865, in grey, brown and red sandstone with tiled roofs. The plan has a five-bay nave with south aisle, a chancel and vestry by Woodyer, and a fourteenth- to fifteenth-century south-west tower in three stages with diagonal buttresses. The east wall of the tower has scars of three lancets, reputed once to have held a statue of a Pietà. A timber-framed south porch, probably seventeenth-century, has an ogee-headed wicket-gate. The south aisle has restored thirteenth-century Y-tracery and lancets.
The interior has a five-bay nave with cylindrical columns to the thirteenth-century south arcade; the three western capitals are in grey stone with heads amid stiff-leaf. The north arcade is dated 1880. The double-collar nave roof, possibly sixteenth-century, is supported by arch-braces with two rows of wind-braces. The churchyard cross is separately listed at Grade II*. The church is open daily from 8am until 7.30pm, or dusk if earlier.