St James' Chapel, Postlip

St James' Chapel stands about 25m north of Postlip Hall, in the valley of the River Isbourne below Cleeve Common, about 3km west of Winchcombe. It is a two-cell Norman chapel of the twelfth century, listed Grade I, that served as a farm store for centuries before it was restored for Catholic worship in 1891.

History

St James' is said to have been founded by William de Solers in about 1139, in the reign of King Stephen, according to the Catholic Diocese of Clifton's record of the chapel. Historic England dates the building to the twelfth century.

Farm store

For several centuries the chapel served the estate as a farm building, the diocese's record says. The hall beside it went the same way: Historic England's listing records that in the early 1860s it was occupied by four tenants, among them a bailiff, a carter and a shepherd, with the middle of the house used for farming, and that its great hall served in the nineteenth century as a farm store with a granary above.

Back to worship

In 1890 to 1891 the chapel was restored for Mr and Mrs Stuart Forster, Catholic converts and friends of Cardinal Manning, who had bought Postlip Hall. Their architect was H. A. Prothero of the Cheltenham firm Middleton, Prothero and Phillott; the sculptor Alfred B. Wall carved the decoration of the chancel wall and the altar, and Bishop Clifford of Clifton consecrated it again on 16 June 1891. It is thought to have been only the third medieval church in England returned to Catholic use. (The listing gives the restoration as about 1880; the diocesan record's 1890 to 1891 fits the consecration date.) The Forster family later left it to the Catholic parish of Winchcombe and it fell out of use again: Historic England's listing records it in considerable decay and used as an implement house for the estate in the 1960s. A Friends group formed in 1990 raised money for repairs, including a grant of £25,000 from English Heritage.

What to look for

From the path you see a small limestone chapel of nave and chancel under a stone-slate roof, with a stone bell turret and ball finial over the chancel arch. The north doorway is the treasure: Norman chevron and ball ornament over shafts with cushion capitals, and a tympanum carved with fish scales, closed by a Victorian plank door with strap hinges. Look too for:

• the small slit windows beside the north doorway and in the chancel, which the diocese's record takes to be original Norman openings;
• the larger three-light Perpendicular windows inserted in the east and west walls;
• the sacristy at the north-west, added in 1890 to 1891, the diocese's record says;
• the group it makes with Postlip Hall, a Grade I house mostly of the seventeenth century, and the medieval tithe barn a little to the south.

Inside, which visitors rarely see, are the Norman chancel arch with chevron, star and billet ornament, the carved work of 1891, and an east window of 1895 by Ward and Hughes.

Visiting

St James' is a private chapel and has no regular opening; the Catholic diocese's record notes that it is served only irregularly and that no services had been held for some time. Please see it from the Cotswold Way, which passes close by, and respect the privacy of the hall, which is now divided into several homes. The way in is on foot: the Cotswold Way here is an unsurfaced track on a slope.

Getting there

There is no public parking at Postlip. From Winchcombe, the Cotswold Way climbs past Belas Knap and drops to Postlip, about 7.5km from Back Lane car park (GL54 5PZ); from Cleeve Hill it is a steep walk down from the golf club and Quarry car parks, and Stagecoach West's W bus runs from the main road below the golf club to Winchcombe about hourly, Monday to Saturday only.

The Cotswold Way's section from Winchcombe to Cleeve Hill passes the chapel before its last climb, as does the long-distance Cotswold Way. The loop by Belas Knap and Cleeve Common comes back past it, and it is a short detour from Cleeve Common and Cleeve Cloud.

Nearby

The tithe barn is about 130m south, and Cleeve Common rises above the valley. Back in town, St Peter's Church is the great fifteenth-century church of Winchcombe, and Hailes Church, another small Norman church, is on the other side of the town. The Cleeve Hill Hotel is the nearest place to stay, on the main road above.