---
title: "St James, High Melton"
description: "Located in High Melton, Yorkshire. Built C12, C14 and C15; C19 restoration. Diocese of Sheffield. Grade II*. Perpendicular style."
category: "Church"
tags: ["Church","Church of England","Yorkshire","High Melton","Grade II*","Perpendicular","Ninian Comper","Diocese of Sheffield"]
canonical: "https://thebritishgazette.com/post/st-james-high-melton"
pubDate: "2026-09-06T01:49:46.601Z"
dateModified: "2026-09-09T12:29:49.608Z"
location: "High Melton, Yorkshire"
country: "England"
county: "Yorkshire"
town: "High Melton"
address: "Church Lane, High Melton, Yorkshire, DN5 7SZ"
postcode: "DN5 7SZ"
built: "C12, C14 and C15; C19 restoration"
denomination: "Church of England"
dedications: ["James"]
diocese: "Sheffield"
grade: "II*"
style: "Perpendicular"
materials: "Ashlar and rubble limestone; stone slate roofs"
website: "http://www.barnburghandharlington.co.uk/stjameshistory.html"
openingHours: "The church is normally kept locked, except when there are events, please contact us to arrange a visit."
parish: "High Melton"
listEntryUrl: "https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1192208"
gridReference: "SE 509 018"
accessNotes: "Level access to the main areas. Accessible toilets nearby"
---

# St James, High Melton

St James is a Grade II* parish church on Church Lane in High Melton, near Doncaster in South Yorkshire, in the Diocese of Sheffield.

## Overview

Historic England records a church of the twelfth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries with nineteenth-century restoration, built of ashlar and rubble limestone under stone slate roofs. The plan is a west tower, two-bay nave and two-bay chancel with a continuous south aisle overlapping the tower, and a south porch. The Perpendicular tower has offset diagonal buttresses, a two-light west window with ogee-headed lights, a stair turret in the north-west buttress, transomed two-light belfry openings, and an embattled parapet with crocketed pinnacles. The nave and aisle are embattled; the south porch has a chamfered arch and an ogee-arched south door.

The listing highlights a painted reredos by Sir Ninian Comper of 1905–07 and an excellent fifteenth-century parclose screen to the south chapel with Decorated mouchette tracery. Wall monuments commemorate the Fountayne family. Glass includes fourteenth- and fifteenth-century figures in the north chancel and south aisle, eighteenth-century heraldic glass associated with Peckitt, and an east window by Kempe. The church was given to the Cistercian nuns of Hampole in the twelfth century as a chapel of ease.

## Further Information

- [Historic England list entry 1192208](https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1192208)
- [British Listed Buildings: Church of St James](https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101192208-church-of-st-james-high-melton)