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St James

St James

Ruscombe

Berkshire

C12 flint chancel with stone dressings, nave and tower rebuilt in 1638 almost entirely in brick of the last phase of Gothic, with moulded door and window jambs and tracery in the same material

Architectural Features

moulded brick cornice to nave, old tile gabled roofs

Chancel: 2 small lancet windows on east wall with semi-circular rear arches, splayed inner jambs and external chamfers, a similar window on the north wall, 2 windows on the south wall the first a small C19 one of 2 pointed lights, the second a small original lancet and at the west end of the same wall is part of the pointed head of a blocked priest's doorway, over which is a relieving arch of Roman bricks and on the second brick of the arch is a medieval mass clock

Interior: 3 bay trussed rafter roof to nave, an open C14 roof to chancel of collared rafters supported by arched braces, the braces to the central pair of rafters and the wall plate are moulded

The wall between the roofs of the chancel and nave is carried on a large oak rood beam and the C17 tympanum has the commandments painted on the original plaster

On the jambs of the east windows of the chancel are preserved some C13 wall paintings

An early C17 hexagonal wooden pulpit, the lower part Cl9, with an elaborate 12 sided sounding board

At the west end of the nave are 2 C17 carved oak pews

Monuments: south wall of chancel:- a stone aedicule panel with central cartouche of anus to Gwyn, 1705: A stone aedicule panel to John Aldworth, 1710 and wife Mary

On west wall of nave over door to tower :- a projecting central panel, side pilasters set back with side scrolls and carved drops to Letitia, first wife of Reginald Fellows, citizen of London died 1706 and to Catherine his second wife died 1716: on north wall of nave:- to James Eyre, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer and lord Chief Justice, 1799, a black pyrimidal background to a broken column and figure of Justice R. Westmacott, sculp: to the east of this to Walter Knight 1771, an aedicule panel with Boric pilasters.