Congregational Church
Southam, Warwickshire
A church at the heart of its community.
Dedicated to St James the Apostle, the 14th century church was built on the foundations of an earlier 12th century wooden one. St James is a relatively large church for a small town, reflecting the time when Southam was the county town of Warwickshire. There is a clerestory with 16 windows, chancel, north and south aisles, and a tower atop of which is a spire in the Northamptonshire style.
The west wall has several large fragments of medieval paintings and texts in old Latin; unfortunately the rest were painted over to be hidden (protected?) forever… or until a dream can be fulfilled and the paint stripped off. There are many ‘heads’ inside and outside the church of ogres, kings, dames, tradespeople and the ubiquitous ‘green man’. Wooden Tudor roses sit on bosses at junctions with the ceiling timbers.
Light streams in through the many large and beautiful Victorian stained glass windows, one of which was made by master maker of stained glass William Holland of nearby Warwick who exhibited at the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in 1851.
Our younger visitors are fascinated by our medieval coffin hewn out of stone and they love to search for the scallop shells and crossed swords that represent St James - a fisherman who is reputed to have been beheaded - and appear in several places around the church, including the 19th century carved rood screen.
The bell tower houses eight bells whose peels are heard from every corner of our town on Tuesday evenings and Sunday mornings, and for weddings, funerals and public occasions. The oldest bell is the sixth being cast by Watts of Leicester in 1615.
We have many stories and if only walls could talk there are probably many more. In 1641 Charles I stayed in Southam on his way to the Battle of Edgehill 13 miles away. The ringers failed to ring to announce the King’s arrival. The Churchwarden’s accounts for that year show these two entries: “Paid to the King’s footmen who sealed up the church doors for not ringing when the King came to town 6s-8d” (33p). “Paid also to them for not ringing when the King went out of the town 5s” (25p).
The churchyard is well kept and a peaceful green space with an avenue of lime trees along the cobbled path from the Lych gate to the north door. There are a number of War Graves Commission headstones in the churchyard marking the graves of forces personnel who died in action in the Second World War and one more recently in Afghanistan. There is also the grave of Sgt Seth Bond who was a survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854 during the Crimean War. His memorial consists of a five foot high cross decorated with a sword in its scabbard and a laurel wreath. The church and churchyard are well used by the Southam community. The churchyard is a thoroughfare between the town and the main play area and out to the open countryside beyond.