Description

NORTH HUISH
SX75NW AVONWICK
4/463 Church of St James

GV II

Chapel on the Black Hall (qv) estate. 1878 by R Medley Fulford for
Frederick James Cornish-Bowden of Black Hall in memory of James Cornish,
his father. Dressed snecked shale with bands of pink ashlar, some slate
hanging, timber and ironstone windows. Slate roof with crested ridge
tiles.
Plan: Nave and chancel in one with a vestry on the south side of the nave
incorporating a porch to the south doorway; on the north side of the
chancel a projecting organ chamber. All of one build in 1878. Situated on
a north east-south west axis with the liturgical east at the north east
end.
Exterior: The steeply pitched roof over the whole church has exposed
rafter ends under the eaves and exposed purlin ends on brackets at the west
gable end; at the east end the gable has a coped parapet with an Iona cross
at the apex. The roof is carried down over the organ chamber on the north
side of the chancel and swept down over the vestry on the south side of the
nave. The vestry incorporates an open timber porch in its west angle to
the south doorway; the porch has a small gable over the entrance on its
west side. The base of the walls all round the church including the porch
are slightly battered. The west end of the south wall of the nave to the
left of the porch has shallow buttresses and their set offs have slate
weathering. Between the buttresses the walls have fishscale patterned
slate hanging and slate weathered cills to the 1 and 2-light timber windows
which have straight heads and cusped lights with leaded panes. The north
windows are all similar and are also set in slate handing with deep slate
weathered cills between shallow buttresses. The 4-light west window is
also timbe but has a depressed 2-centred arch and cusped lights. The
vestry windows are also timber with similarly cusped lights.
The chancel has stone window frames and a moulded string course which
continues around the weathered diagonal corner buttresses and rises to the
cill of the 3 cusped lancet lights of the east window which are contained
within a hoodmould; above the east window a small cusped lancet ventilation
slit with a transom, and below the east window the stringcourse rises over
3 crosses depicted in pink stone in the masonry. The stringcourse on the
south side of the chancel rises to the higher cill level of the 2 cusped
lancets to the east and the 2 lights of the chancel's south window to the
west are uncusped.
Over the roof between the nave and chancel a bell turret with slated
louvres below the open timber bell stage and a slated spire with
sprocketted eaves; the lead flashing at the top of the spire is bent over
into scrolls and there is an iron Jerusalem cross at the apex.
Interior: Nave and chancel in one except that the roof trusses over the
screen are coupled to form a ceilure. The roof trusses are arch braced
with hammerbeams on stone corbels; the spandrels of the arch braces over
the chancel are pierced and the coupled trusses over the screen have a
frame above the collar which supports the belfry on the roof. The timber
screen by H Hems has cusped arches and a brattiched top rail with a cross
at the centre; its wainscot is pierced and incorporates a pulpit on the
north side with pierced sides, a brattished top rail and a tiled base. The
wall plates in the nave are carried over the window recesses on timber
braces supported on corbels. The nave walls are plastered and have a
vertical boarded dado; the chancel walls are whitewashed brick. The
crenellated timber reredos has a canopied niche and the altar table is
original. The low sill of the south window of the chancel forms a sedilia
and on the north wall the cusped ambry has a shelf supported on a bracket.
The moulded wooden altar rail has turned posts and pierced spandrels. The
organ set in an organ chamber on the north side of the chancel has a
fretwork frieze. The choir stalls are original and well designed. The
chancel floor has patterned quarry tiles, it is at higher level then the
nave and stepped up again to the altar. Ornate wrought iron brass lectern.
Simple but well designed benches in the nave with curved inverted Y-shape
ends. Small octagonal font has a marble stem and moulded base. Original
gothic style panelled south door and vestry door.
Brass plaque on the south wall of the chancel states that the church was
built in memory of James Cornish of Black Hall who died as a result of
falling from his horse nearby.
Stained glass east window. The other windows have only stained glass
margin panes but the chancel south windows have flowers in the window
heads.

Listing NGR: SX7126258276

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26511246

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

• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas