Parish Church of St James the Great, Thorley

Heritage listing

Details TL 41 NE THORLEY CHURCH LANE (west side) Thorley village 4/9 Parish Church of St James the Great 22.2.67 GV I Parish church. Early C13 two cell church with square ended chancel and unaisled nave fossilized at present size by migration of settlement to Thorley Street. S door C12 reset. Simple S porch altered after 1832. Early C15 unbuttressed W tower of 3 stages with buttressed stair projection on S, crenelated parapet, slender spike and weathercock. C19 vestry on N. Works recorded in 1691 (HRO and EHAS Trans (1899) 65-9): 1822 (Kelly 1862): 1834 (HRO). Restorations in 1846 by G E Pritchett (1824-1912) (Pevsner (1977) 363): and Lewis Vulliamy (1791-1871) in 1854/5 (Kelly 1898). Fittings by G G Scott probably c.1870 (EHAS Trans (1899)) and reredos by J Day 1884 (Pevsner). Flint rubble walling with limestone dressings. Steep pitched roofs restored in C19. Red tiling renewed in 1951. Nave walls raised in red brick c.C17. Exterior rendered except 2 lower stages of tower, W end of nave and S wall up to porch. C12 S doorway has spiral fluted shafts, capitals with elementary upright leaves at the angles, chevron ornamented arches in 2 orders, and flatter arch to tympanum. Door C19 with decorative ironwork. C13 lancet windows central in N and S walls of nave and chancel with another and C13 N doorway in chancel. Chancel arch has 2 chamfered orders with semi-octagonal responds, moulded capitals and waterholding bases, possibly late C13 (Pevsner). C14 cinquefoil piscina and triple stepped sedilia with ogee tracery in S wall of chancel. Small trefoil piscina under SE window of nave and rood stair with upper and lower doors in thickened N wall at E. C14 Decorated style tracery of SW and higher SE windows of chancel and the W window (? reset in tower in C15) were noted by Gly

From the Historic England List Entry under OGL v3.