poliphilo

Simon Jenkins describes St James, Bramley as a patchwork. Actually, most old churches are patchworks; what distinguishes St James is that the joins haven't been smoothed over- as they often were in Victorian restorations. The body of the church is Norman, the tower is 17th century, the large southern transept (or Brocas chapel) is by the great John Soane (whose masterpiece is The Bank of England.)

Inside, it's a treasure house.

There are medieval wall paintings of various eras- most notably a well-preserved image of the murder of Thomas Beckett, painted within 50 years of the event and- according to historians- accurate in all its details.

Then there's quite a lot of medieval stained glass, including this striking St Catherine with her wheel,

Again there's a whole window filled with Flemish glass of c 1500. I'd love to know how it got here. My guess is it was collected on the continent in the wake of the French revolution, but there's a story about it being hidden in a nearby moat during the Commonwealth, which suggests it was installed here when fresh from the glassworks. Either way, this is work of cathedral quality- and a rare thing to find in an English parish church.

Here we have The Virgin, St Anne and the Christ Child

And here are David and Goliath

Finally there's the Brocas chapel- built to house the very grand tomb of Bernard Brocas- a portly gent who is shown expiring in the arms of a generic female who is not his wife. I can't find who the sculptor was but, for all its faint absurdity, it's rather splendid.

Soane's Brocas chapel is very early neo-gothic. I'm not keen on Victorian gothic- which I find laboured and over serious, but The Brocas chapel is dated 1802- and has all the qualities you associate with the Regency- charm, good manners, lightheartedness. Those ribs are merely pretending to be load-bearing- and not trying very hard. I get the feeling Soane was having fun...