St James the Great, Cradley
St James the Great, Cradley
St James the Great is a Grade II* parish church on Rectory Lane, Cradley, Herefordshire, in the Diocese of Hereford.
- Location
- Cradley, Herefordshire
- Country
- England
- County
- Herefordshire
- City / town
- Cradley
- Address
- Rectory Lane, Cradley, Herefordshire, WR13 5LH
- Postcode
- WR13 5LH
- Built
- C12 origins; tower c.1200, heightened C15; restored 1868-69
- Architect
- Sir George Gilbert Scott (1868); A E Perkins (1869 aisle)
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- James the Great
- Diocese
- Hereford
- Parish
- Cradley
- Grade
- II*
- Style
- Transitional tower; Gothic Revival nave and chancel
- Materials
- Local red sandstone rubble with freestone dressings; tile roof
- Grid reference
- SO 736 471
- Opening hours
- Covid19 : During the current restrictions relating to Covid19 it is open daily from 9am to 5pm. [Normally open : Open daily between 8am to 5pm during the winter and 8am to 7pm during the summer.]
- Access
- Accessible toilets nearby. Level access throughout
Overview
Historic England records a parish church with a tower of about 1200, heightened in the fifteenth century, partly restored in 1868 by Sir George Gilbert Scott and further restored, with a north aisle, in 1869 by A. E. Perkins. The fabric is local red sandstone rubble with freestone dressings and a tile roof. The plan is a nave with a lower, narrower chancel, west tower, south porch and north aisle with vestry. The three-stage tower is Transitional in its lower stages, with later diagonal west buttresses. A south doorway has a cyclopean arch; a fragment of masonry with crockets, probably Anglo-Saxon, is set into the north wall. The west window is nineteenth-century Perpendicular. Clock faces on the north and south sides were installed as a 1914-18 war memorial.
The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture notes that the church was largely rebuilt in 1868-70. The south doorway and tower arch are twelfth-century; the north aisle arcade by Perkins is of six bays. Scott rebuilt the chancel in 1868; the south porch dates from 1893. The manor was held by the Bishop of Hereford in 1086, when a priest was recorded.