Editing Avebury (village) (section)

=== Parish church ===
<!-- Church of St James, Avebury redirects here -->
[[File:St._James'_Church,_Avebury.jpg|left|thumb|upright|St James' Church]]
[[Nikolaus Pevsner|Pevsner]] describes the [[Church of England parish church]] of St James as "archaeologically uncommonly interesting".{{sfn|Orbach|Pevsner|Cherry|2021|pp=122-123}} There was a stone church on this site, just west of the prehistoric earthwork, in the 10th century;<ref name="churchlisting">{{National Heritage List for England|num=1193084|desc=Church of St James|access-date=1 August 2021|fewer-links=yes}}</ref> it had a high and narrow nave without aisles, similar in its proportions to [[St Laurence's Church, Bradford-on-Avon]].{{sfn|Orbach|Pevsner|Cherry|2021|p=21}} Parts of this building survive, in [[quoins]] at the north-west corner and two small windows at the west end (now internal to the church), which had external shutters rather than glazing.<ref name="kennet8">{{cite web|title=St James, Avebury|url=https://www.kennet8.org.uk/st-james-avebury/|access-date=2 August 2021|website=Upper Kennet Benefice}}</ref> Three circular [[clerestory]] windows in the north wall are also Anglo-Saxon.<ref name="churchlisting" />

Aisles were added in the 12th century, the nave walls being pierced by low arches; the aisles were widened in the 15th century and in 1812 the arches were rebuilt to let in more light, but fragments of 12th-century work remain.<ref name="corpus">{{cite web|title=St James, Avebury, Wiltshire|url=https://www.crsbi.ac.uk/view-item?i=11041|access-date=2 August 2021|website=The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland|publisher=King's College London}}</ref> Pevsner called the newer [[Tuscan architecture|Tuscan]] columns "a surprise, but not an unpleasant one".{{sfn|Orbach|Pevsner|Cherry|2021|pp=122-123}} In the 14th century the south porch was rebuilt, using a 12th-century doorway having two carved [[Order (mouldings)|orders]] and a [[hood mould]].<ref name="corpus" /> The three-stage west tower, with stair-turret, was built around the same time.<ref name="churchlisting" />

The chancel was rebuilt in the 13th century, and again in 1879 during [[Victorian restoration|restoration]] by [[Robert Jewell Withers|R. J. Withers]].<ref name="churchlisting" /> The church was designated as [[Grade I listed]] in 1966.<ref name="churchlisting" />

The stone font has carving which is probably from two periods. The lower part has an arcade of intersecting arches with a somewhat chaotic layout, while the upper decoration has foliage scrolls, two serpents or dragons, and a skirted figure which may be [[Saint Michael]], holding a [[crozier]]. The font may be Saxon with Norman carving over-cut.<ref name="corpus" /><ref name="kennet8" />

The chancel screen is a design of 1884 by [[Charles Ponting|C.E. Ponting]],{{sfn|Orbach|Pevsner|Cherry|2021|pp=122-123}} and above it is a 15th-century [[rood loft]] with coloured and gilded panels, complete and therefore described as "rare" by Historic England.<ref name="churchlisting" /> The timbers of the loft were concealed behind a wall after the [[English Reformation|Reformation]] in the 16th century, remained undiscovered until 1810, and then were reinstalled by Ponting in 1878–1884.<ref name="wch-church">{{cite web|title=The Parish Church of St. James, Avebury|url=https://apps.wiltshire.gov.uk/communityhistory/Church/Details/11|access-date=4 August 2021|website=Wiltshire Community History|publisher=Wiltshire Council}}</ref> Monuments inside the church include an elaborate marble wall memorial to Susanna Holford (died 1772).<ref name="churchlisting" />

In 1979 there were five bells in the tower, dating from the 17th and 18th centuries;<ref name="vch" /> after the peal was restored in 1981<ref name="kennet8" /> there were six cast at [[Whitechapel Bell Foundry|Whitechapel]], and two more were added in 2009.<ref name="dove">{{cite web|title=Avebury|url=https://dove.cccbr.org.uk/detail.php?tower=14799|access-date=4 August 2021|website=Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers}}</ref> The old tenor bell, cast in 1719 by [[Richard Phelps (bell-founder)|Richard Phelps]] (born in Avebury and master of the Whitechapel foundry from 1701 to 1738) now strikes the hours.<ref name="wch-church" />

The [[lychgate]] at the south entrance to the churchyard was designed by Ponting and erected in 1899.{{sfn|Orbach|Pevsner|Cherry|2021|pp=122-123}} A heavy timber frame on low limestone walls, under a tiled roof, it is described by Historic England as a good example of its type.<ref>{{National Heritage List for England|num=1033764|desc=Lychgate|access-date=5 August 2021|fewer-links=yes}}</ref>

The benefice was united with [[Winterbourne Monkton]] from 1747 to 1864,<ref name="vch" /> and again from 1929,<ref>{{London Gazette
| issue = 33493
| date = 10 May 1929
| pages = 3114-3116
}}</ref> although the parishes remained distinct. From 1952<ref>{{London Gazette
| issue = 39433
| date = 4 January 1952
| page = 141
| nolink = y
}}</ref> and again from 1963,<ref>{{London Gazette
| issue = 42938
| date = 8 March 1963
| page = 2113
| nolink = y
}}</ref> the incumbent also held the benefice of [[Berwick Bassett]]. In 1975 a team ministry was created for the area,<ref>{{London Gazette
| issue = 46524
| date = 21 March 1975
| page = 3845
| nolink = y
}}</ref> and today the parish is part of the Upper Kennet Benefice, alongside seven others around Avebury.<ref name="kennet8" />