St. James' Braithwell - The Interior

A view of the interior of St. James' church in Braithwell

Entering St. James’ church in Braithwell, the first thing that I noticed was that the pattern of masonry in the external wall of the south aisle – coursed rubble stone with various colours – is also seen below the level of the windows in the eastern section of the north wall of the nave. 

 A view of the north wall of the nave

This is presumably the remaining part of the original Norman church and the masonry above and to the west of it, which is all squared and coursed dolomitic limestone, is obviously younger. 

A view of the south aisle

Looking at the arcade to the C14 south aisle – very unusual without a corresponding north aisle - there is again a distinct change in the style of masonry above the arches and, although this church doesn’t have a clerestory, this provides further evidence that the nave has been raised. 

A view of the arcade and aisle

With the church being occupied by many members of the Braithwell and Micklebring Memories Group and their various displays and, spending much of my time talking to them, I wasn’t able to study the various stones in any detail. 

A view to the west from the chancel

Based on the layout of four large arches in the middle of the church, Pevsner and various other authorities on church architecture have suggested that a central tower, with transepts, might have been proposed by the master mason who originally designed this church 

A piscina

Being mindful that I was reliant on the rural bus service that operates in Braithwell, my further exploration of St. James’ church was somewhat curtailed and I wasn’t able to look closely at the mouldings of the various arches and other details, which architectural historians and archaeologists rely upon to place a date. 

The chancel arch

The chancel arch, which is slightly pointed and transitional from the Norman to the Early English Gothic style, is the oldest of the four arches that occupy the centre of the church and in the chancel itself, there is a highly decorated Easter Sepulchre of unknown age. 

The Easter Sepulchre

As a geologist, my principal interest in visiting mediaeval churches is to see which building stones have been used and how the various phases of construction use different styles of masonry and I particularly like to see how decorative stones have been used in memorials and other features; however, on this occasion, I was pleasantly surprised to see a large fossil scallop shell lying on a window sill, whose presence nobody was able to explain. 

A fossil scallop shell