Description

TQ 1395 BUSHEY HIGH STREET
(South side)
Bushey

13/103 Church of St. James
14.9.49 (Formerly listed as Parish
Church of St. James)
GV II*

Parish Church. Early to mid C13 chancel. C15 tower. Restored and extended
1871 by Sir G.Gilbert Scott. 1897 additions. Knapped flint with stone
rubble in tower. Ashlar dressings. Tiled roofs. Originally 3-bay chancel
and 5-bay nave. N and S aisles, N porch, organ bay and vestry all added
in C19. Chancel: 3 C19 lancets to E. 2-stage diagonal buttresses. To N:
3 lancets in chamfered surrounds with hood moulds. To S: vestry and
organ bay, 2 trefoiled lights with a square head and a gable to E, 1
light to S. Lean-to addition with entrance to E and two 2-light windows
to S. S aisle: four 3-light windows, foiled heads to each light, pointed
heads, hood moulds, 2-stage buttresses. W bay has a 2-light window with
curvilinear tracery. Diagonal buttresses at return angles. W return:
large 4-light window with curvilinear tracery. Shorter and narrower N
aisle. Towards E two 2-light traceried windows, diagonal buttress to
return with similar window. W bay and W bay of nave similar. Porch
towards W end: timber on flint and stone base. Timber double doors with
pointed arched head. Foiled heads to glazed and unglazed panels on
returns. Sham close studding in gable with elaborate bargeboards. C15
moulded frame to door into N aisle. Aisles, nave, chancel and vestry all
separately roofed with chancel slightly lower than nave. Tower: 3
stages, pointed arched head to W entrance with C15 plank door with strap
hinges, hollow moulded surround, stopped hood mould. Restored C16 window
above: 2 foiled lights in a hollow moulded square head. String course
below small C19 lancets in 2nd stage. Bell stage has 2 trefoil headed
openings with square heads to each side. Moulded cornice. Embattled
parapet. 4-stage diagonal buttresses. Clock to E in 2nd stage. NE corner
stair turret with slit windows, quadrilateral to semi-octagonal upper
stage. Interior: C13 blank triple arcades to N and S chancel walls,
Purbeck marble shafts with moulded caps and bases to chamfered pointed
arches with labels. S chancel wall: lancet to E, half lancet over vestry
door to centre and remains of late C13 3-light window now opening to
organ chamber to W. C15 tower arch, part rebuilt. C19 N and S aisle
arcades. 5 bays to S, 3 to N arranged 2 and 1, follow an earlier model.
Octagonal piers with moulded caps and bases to 2 chamfered orders in
pointed arches. In place of chancel arch a tympanum over a cambered tie
beam carrying the Royal Arms of Queen Anne with diaper surround to nave,
to chancel a C17 painting showing the Divine Glory supported by putti
and flanking reclining figures. Late C14 or early C15 nave roof:
alternate hammer beam and tie beam trusses, arched braces, hollow
chamfered wind braces, moulded tie beams, purlins, collars and wall
plates. Chancel roof retains early moulded wall plates to C19 braced
collar trusses with painted decoration to E. Aisles have C19 arched
braced roofs following model of nave. Aumbry at E end of N chancel wall.
C19 Gothic altar table with figures painted by students of H.Herkomer.
Early C17 octagonal pulpit with tester, panelled and richly carved,
steps with barley sugar balusters. Brass candelabra in chancel given
1727. Carved organ case and decorated pipes of 1871 to S aisle. Carved
double doors of 1906 from S aisle to vestry. Carved timber cross at W
end of S aisle by H. Herkomer. Marble font 1874. Patterned encaustic
tile floor. C17 floor slab tombs in vestry. Glass: some C17 fragments, E
window 1871 by Powell and Sons, W window by Wooldridge. (RCHM 1910: VCH
1923: Pevsner 1977: Bushey Parish Church Guide 1981).

Listing NGR: TQ1303195223

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17554478

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)