Church of St James, Berwick St James

The Church of St James is a Grade I listed building located in the south-eastern part of the village. The earliest known reference to the church dates from 1191, though it is likely the building was in existence well before this point. The church building itself is built of flint rubble and stone, with a north porch, a west tower, north and south chapels, a chancel and a clerestoried nave. The nave, the oldest part of the building proper, dates from the mid-twelfth century. 

The church underwent significant expansion in the early thirteenth century, with the addition of the north chapel in the early 1300s. In the latter part of the century the chancel appears to have been rebuilt, most likely longer than previously, and the church tower was added. Further alterations came in the fourteenth century, when a new window was added to the south wall of the nave. The church then remained largely untouched until the fifteenth century, when the north chapel was rebuilt, probably to incorporate a rood stair in the south-east corner.  

The early 1500s saw another period of substantial alterations to the fabric of the church.

A southern chapel was added along with a clerestory with pairs of corbel heads to support the low pitched roof, intended to increase the amount of light on the rood. Finally, the church porch was added during this period. The church then once again remained structurally unaltered until 1651, when a major project rebuilt the church tower. 

After this final project, the church appears to have remained mostly the same until the late eighteenth-century, when the chancel screen was removed in 1790. At some point after 1825 the fifteenth century stone pulpit, up to then against the north wall of the nave and entered by a stair from the north chapel, was relocated to the south side of the chancel arch. The pulpit, which includes arched panels and moulded corbelling, was uncommon in its original arrangement in that it was designed to be entered through a raised doorway in the north wall, and that the staircase to access the pulpit was shared with that to a room over the porch. Adams relates a (possibly apocryphal) story that the change to the location of the pulpit came about owing to the fact that the incumbent at the church in the Regency period was rather “too stout” to conveniently enter the pulpit via this narrow stair and doorway, resulting in the pulpit being relocated.

The pulpit, though somewhat damaged in its adaption to its current location, is significant in that it is one of only two medieval stone pulpits in the county. 

From the mid nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries the church appears to have been largely neglected. A surveyor’s report from February 1916 said “the internal walls are in a deplorable state of damp and the building is in such a state as to repel people from visiting it for fear of catching colds or rheumatism, being in many places covered with slimy moss”. Heating in the church was provided by two coke stoves, the iron flue of which had apparently stained the church stonework very badly. The church tower was also in a state of disrepair, with the bell chamber in particular “in a state of filth and neglect. The wheels are all to pieces and there are ropes to only two bells”. These issues were probably repaired sometime between 1919 and 1922, as a balance sheet from this period indicates that £711.7.0 was spent repairing the church. 

 The church contains a number of fixtures and fittings that are of interest.

The font dates from the twelfth century and is in the form of a stone cylinder on a pedestal with a moulded plinth. The communion rail dates from the late seventeenth century and has tall, unusual baluster-shaped knobs on the posts, alongside vase finals. The pews are of oak and date from the nineteenth century. Finally, there are two memorials to members of the Pinckney family, prominent local landowners and sometime holders of the manor of Berwick St James. The memorials are located in the chancel and are of marble in the classical style. The first also includes an urn and drapery and is to Robert Pinckney by Osmond of Sarum, died in 1823. The second is to another Robert, died in 1836. 

The Church of St James is also significant for its church plate. The current chalice and paten were given to the church in 1879 by the British Museum, in exchange for the far older and historically significant items that were donated to the museum at this time. The original paten dated from c. 1500, however it is the chalice that is of greater note. Dating from c. 1200, the form of the chalice is typical of that of the thirteenth century and is largely plain, without any decoration or inscription.

What makes the chalice remarkable is the fact that it survived the Reformation, when others of its type and age were confiscated or destroyed (4oz of plate was confiscated from the church in 1553); in fact, with the exception of smaller chalices located in the tombs of the clergy, this chalice may be a sole example of a pre-Reformation vessel being retained in use in an English church. Nightingale attributes the chalice’s survival to a combination of its plainness, meaning that it was unlikely to “clash with the prevalent religious feeling at the time of the Reformation” and the fact that Berwick St James and its church were largely unfrequented and therefore escaped notice. 

In 1553 the church had three bells, however by 1992 there were four (dating from 1683, 1687, 1727 and 1748), although by that point only the 1748 bell was usable. A fifth bell, dating from between 1683 and 1727, fell from the tower one Christmas Day, and was sold in 1835, possibly to fund the purchase of the church stove. 

Throughout the history of the church, the income of the incumbent was relatively poor. The living was £8 5s. 7d.

in 1535, a rate that was well below the average for the deanery. Despite supplements totalling £300 from the patron and Queen Anne’s bounty in 1810, the living was still poor in 1830 when it had risen to £54, still a relatively modest sum. By the 1840s the vicar received some small tithes, totalling £30 11s, though these were commuted in 1841. The extent of the parish glebe, the area of land intended to support the vicar, is uncertain however it may have encompassed only the churchyard and the site of a house for much of its history; fourteen acres of land were bought in the parish circa 1813, but these were sold in 1922. 

The majority of the incumbents at the church appear to have been unremarkable men, doing nothing particularly noteworthy to draw attention to their names. The small size of the parish and the low living may have contributed to many curates living outside the village. From the late eighteenth century no incumbent is known to have lived in the parish – indeed the vicarage house appears to have stood unused and neglected for many years by the early nineteenth century, as it was described as unfit for residence in 1830; it was later let out as a labourer’s cottage and finally demolished in 1900.

In 1783 the curate who served both Berwick St James and Stapleford is known to have lived in Salisbury. From 1817 to 1879 the vicars of St James were also the incumbents of Winterbourne Stoke, where they also lived, and between 1879 and 1924 they were vicars of and resident in Stapleford. The vicarage was then united with Stapleford in 1924, and in 1992 this combined vicarage became part of the Lower Wylye and Till Valley benefice, where it remains. 

Other than those currently in use, the parish registers for burials survive from 1731 and for baptisms and marriages from 1746 and can be accessed at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, Chippenham.