St James' Church is a redundant Anglican church near the village of

Stanstead Abbotts Stanstead Abbotts (alternatively Stanstead Abbots) is a village and civil parish in the district of East Hertfordshire, Hertfordshire, England; it lies on the county boundary with Essex. At the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 1,983. ...

, Hertfordshire, England. It is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

(NHLE) as a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

, having been designated in 1967. The church is under the care of the

Churches Conservation Trust The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...

. The church is about to the southeast of the village on the north side of the B181 road. It stands on the top of a hill overlooking the

Lea Lea or LEA may refer to: Places Australia * Lea River, Tasmania, Australia * Lake Lea, Tasmania, from which the Lea River flows * RAAF Base Learmonth, IATA airport code "LEA" England * Lea, Cheshire, a civil parish * Lea, Derbyshire, a set ...

marshes. The description in the NHLE states it is "of outstanding interest as a medieval church with an unrestored 18th-century interior". In the ''

Buildings of England The Pevsner Architectural Guides are a series of guide books to the architecture of Great Britain and Ireland. Begun in the 1940s by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the 46 volumes of the original Buildings of England series were publish ...

'' series, the architectural historian

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

wrote "Inside there are few churches in the county which have so well preserved an 18th-century village character".

History

The

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

probably dates from the 12th century, and the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

from the following century. The tower and porch were built in the 15th century, and the northeast chapel was added in 1577. In 1881 a new church, dedicated to Saint Andrew, was built nearer to the village centre and this superseded St James'.

Architecture

Exterior

The main building material used is

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...

rubble Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionar ...

with stone dressings. There is brickwork in the northeast chapel and in the east wall of the chancel. Some

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

tiles have been incorporated in the flint walls. The roofs are tiled, and the porch is

timber-framed Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large woode ...

. Its plan consists of a nave and chancel under one roof without any structural division, a northeast chapel, a south porch, and a west tower. The tower is in two stages with angle

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral ( ...

es at the west corners. At the southeast angle is a projecting octagonal stair turret which rises higher than the tower. In the west wall is a doorway with a three-light window above it. There are two-light bell openings on each side. At the top of the tower is a

battlement A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interv ...

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). ...

and a small lead-covered spire. In the north wall of the nave is a blocked doorway, but no windows. The chapel has a small west door, two two-light windows in the north wall, and a three-light window on the east side. The east window of the chancel also has three lights. There are two two-light windows in the south wall of both the chancel and the nave. All the windows are

Perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It ca ...

in style. The south porch is

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

d with cusped

bargeboard Bargeboard (probably from Medieval Latin ''bargus'', or ''barcus'', a scaffold, and not from the now obsolete synonym "vergeboard") or rake fascia is a board fastened to each projecting gable of a roof to give it strength and protection, and to ...

s. The lower part of the sides is boarded, and the upper part is open. The south doorway dates from the 13th century.

Interior

The interior of the church is

whitewash Whitewash, or calcimine, kalsomine, calsomine, or lime paint is a type of paint made from slaked lime (calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2) or chalk calcium carbonate, (CaCO3), sometimes known as "whiting". Various other additives are sometimes used. ...

ed. The tower arch dates from the early 15th century. The north

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

has four bays carried on octagonal piers. The circular font dates from the 13th century, and is carried on a 15th century

pedestal A pedestal (from French ''piédestal'', Italian ''piedistallo'' 'foot of a stall') or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In ...

. The 16th-century two-decker pulpit stands on the south wall. On the east walls of the chapel are Royal arms and commandment boards. In the chancel is a 13th-century double

piscina A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, or else in the vestry or sacristy, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a piscina. For Roman Ca ...

. In the nave are three hatchments, a tortoise stove and

box pew A box pew is a type of church pew that is encased in panelling and was prevalent in England and other Protestant countries from the 16th to early 19th centuries. History in England Before the rise of Protestantism, seating was not customary in ch ...

s. Under the tower arch is a screen which has been made from the former

canopy Canopy may refer to: Plants * Canopy (biology), aboveground portion of plant community or crop (including forests) * Canopy (grape), aboveground portion of grapes Religion and ceremonies * Baldachin or canopy of state, typically placed over an ...

of the pulpit. Part of the former

rood A rood or rood cross, sometimes known as a triumphal cross, is a cross or crucifix, especially the large crucifix set above the entrance to the chancel of a medieval church. Alternatively, it is a large sculpture or painting of the crucifixion ...

screen now forms part of a pew. The north chapel contains a monument to Sir Edward Baesh who died in 1587. It contains the

effigies An effigy is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certai ...

of Sir Edward and his wife, both of whom are kneeling, and carvings of their children, also kneeling. Over the monument is a canopy with a round arch supported on classical columns, with a cornice with his arms. In the north window of the chapel are fragments of stained glass, with parts of Sir Edward's arms, his motto, and other lettering. On the north and east walls are the remains of painted inscriptions. There are

brasses A monumental brass is a type of engraved sepulchral memorial, which in the 13th century began to partially take the place of three-dimensional monuments and effigies carved in stone or wood. Made of hard latten or sheet brass, let into the pavem ...

in the chancel and nave from the 15th and 16th centuries. Also in the church are wall monuments from the 19th century. The single- manual organ was built in 1871 by Bevington and Sons. There is a

ring Ring may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell :(hence) to initiate a telephone connection Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...

of three bells. The oldest two are dated 1605 and 1617, and were cast by Robert Oldfield. The other, by John Briant, dates from 1790.

External features

In the churchyard are six monuments and a tomb, all of which are listed at Grade II. The tomb has three monuments on its top, one in red

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

, the other two in white

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...

. It was possibly originally designed by Alfred Waterhouse in 1881 for members of the Buxton family of Easneye. The Rowley Monument, dated 1746 is a

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

tombchest to the memory of James Rowley. Another stone monument dates from the 19th century and is surrounded by traceried

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron– carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impur ...

railings. The Hankin Monuments are two limestone tombchests; one dates from the 18th century and the other is dated 1809. The Clarke Monument is also a limestone tombchest; it is to the memory of Joseph Clarke and is dated 1725. Another monument consists of weathered oak timbers dating from the 18th century, with an illegible inscription. The Allen Monument is another limestone tombchest; it is to the memory of William Allen and is dated 1827.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stanstead Abbotts, St James' Church Grade I listed churches in Hertfordshire Church of England church buildings in Hertfordshire English Gothic architecture in Hertfordshire Churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust