St James' Church, Bramley


The Church of St James in Bramley, Hampshire, England was built in the Norman period and has been added to since. It is a Grade I listed building.

History

The Norman church had a west tower added in 1636, replacing a previous wooden tower. Part of the nave was added by John Soane in 1802.
The parish is part of the benefice of Sherfield on Loddon, Stratfield Saye and Hartley Wespall with Stratfield Turgis, Bramley and Little London within the Diocese of Winchester.

List of vicars

The flint building has stone dressings and a tiled roof. The walls are supported by buttresses. The south porch and three-stage tower are of red brickwork. Some of the windows in the north wall remain from the original Norman structure.
The interior includes a 13th century piscina while the screen, benches, pulpit and communion rail are from the 16th to 18th centuries.

Wall paintings

In the 1870s, Charles Eddy, vicar of the church, uncovered a large number of wall paintings and painted scriptural texts dating to the 13th through 16th centuries which had been whitewashed over in 1550–1551 during the Reformation. The earliest paintings are on the south wall, and depict a series of martyrdoms, the best preserved being a depiction of the murder of Thomas Becket by four knights in 1170. On the north wall is 16th-century depiction of St Christopher which bears a remarkable likeness to contemporary portraits of King Henry VIII. The north wall also has paintings of scriptural texts, as well as two consecration crosses. There are also elaborate decorative painted designs in the chancel, around the north and south windows, and on the east wall, with paintings of saints on either side of the east window.

Churchyard

The famous physicist Lise Meitner is buried in the burial ground next to the church, near the grave of her brother Walter.