St James

Stone (part rendered), tile and slate roof

PLAN: Chancel, nave, south porch, north aisle and Lady Chapel (formerly vestry). EXTERIOR: The church comprises a late C12 nave with north (reset: slightly chamfered arch) and south (also reset: one order of columns with scallop capitals and with a roll-moulding) and chancel arch (with possibly C13 painted lozenge and spiral decoration) of this date

The chancel with three stepped lancet lights is C13, as are the two south and one north square-headed lights to the chancel and the three dwarf buttresses supporting the east wall

Three windows in the south wall of the nave are C14, the low west tower C15

In 1864-5 G.E. Street added an arcaded north aisle in the Early English style with dogtooth in the abici of the arcade piers (the arcade extending alongside the chancel as a two-storey vestry, later refurbished as the Lady Chapel) in which the C12 door was reset

INTERIOR: Internally fittings and furnishings include a C12 or C13 tub font

C13 piscina with shouldered lintel

stalls and pulpit by Street

The Norman columns at the chancel arch retain their original paint, with spirals on one and lozenges on the other

James, parish church of Cowley village, came to Osney Abbey in 1149, and the remaining Norman elements may date from soon after that

James is a substantially intact medieval parish church, with substantial work of the C12, C13, C14, and C15

Especially notable is the C12 chancel arch with its probably C13 painted decoration