---
title: "St James, Spilsby"
description: "Located in Spilsby, Lincolnshire. Built Founded 1348; late C14 and early C16; chancel rebuilt 1879. Diocese of Lincoln. Grade I. Decorated and Perpendicular style."
category: "Church"
tags: ["Church","Church of England","Lincolnshire","Spilsby","Grade I","Perpendicular","W Basset Smith","Diocese of Lincoln"]
canonical: "https://thebritishgazette.com/post/st-james-spilsby"
pubDate: "2026-09-06T02:44:09.238Z"
dateModified: "2026-09-09T12:30:02.233Z"
location: "Spilsby, Lincolnshire"
country: "England"
county: "Lincolnshire"
town: "Spilsby"
address: "Church Street, Spilsby, Lincolnshire, PE23 5DU"
postcode: "PE23 5DU"
built: "Founded 1348; late C14 and early C16; chancel rebuilt 1879"
architect: "W Basset Smith (1879 chancel and south aisle)"
denomination: "Church of England"
dedications: ["James"]
diocese: "Lincoln"
grade: "I"
style: "Decorated and Perpendicular"
materials: "Squared greenstone rubble, ashlar dressings and rockfaced limestone ashlar; lead roofs"
website: "http://www.stjamesspilsby.co.uk/"
openingHours: "Open daily dawn to dusk."
parish: "Spilsby"
listEntryUrl: "https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1308892"
gridReference: "TF 400 661"
accessNotes: "Ramp or level access available on request. Level access to the main areas. Accessible toilets in church"
---

# St James, Spilsby

St James is a Grade I parish church on Church Street in Spilsby, East Lindsey, Lincolnshire, in the Diocese of Lincoln.

## Overview

Historic England records a parish church founded in 1348 as a college of priests by Lord Willoughby, with late fourteenth- and early sixteenth-century fabric and an 1879 rebuilding of the chancel and addition of a south aisle by W. Basset Smith. Materials are squared greenstone rubble, ashlar dressings and rockfaced limestone ashlar, under lead roofs. The plan is a western tower at the end of the inner north aisle, nave, two north aisles (the inner one a former nave), south aisle, Willoughby chapel in the former chancel, chancel and vestry.

The three-stage early sixteenth-century tower is of greenstone with facetted corner buttresses, a tall plinth with quatrefoil frieze, an embattled parapet with crocketed pinnacles, and triple louvred belfry lights. The original nave is now the inner north aisle; four-bay fourteenth-century arcades have octagonal piers and double-chamfered arches. The fourteenth-century east window of the former chancel has five lights with reticulated tracery. The church is known for Willoughby monuments and a memorial to the explorer Sir John Franklin, who was born in Spilsby.

## Further Information

- [Historic England list entry 1308892](https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1308892)
- [British Listed Buildings: Church of St James](https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101308892-church-of-st-james-spilsby)