St James' Church, Briercliffe

St James’ Church stands on Church Street in Briercliffe, Lancashire. Built in 1839–41 by Lancaster architect Edmund Sharpe, it is an active Anglican parish church with a Grade II listing. The Duke of Buccleuch gave the land and local subscribers raised most of the £1,300 cost. Consecrated in 1841 by the Bishop of Chester, it originally seated 515 worshippers. A new steeple was added in 1869, followed by internal changes by Paley and Austin in the same practice. In 1992 a choir vestry and meeting room were added. The church is a small Early English sandstone building with a steeply pitched stone-slate roof. Its nave and short chancel form a single chamber under a flat ceiling, divided by pilaster buttresses into bays with lancet windows. A two-stage tower at the west end shelters a west door beneath lancets and gables. Above rises an octagonal belfry drum topped by a short spire. At the east end a stepped triple lancet window lights the sanctuary. Inside, cast-iron columns support galleries on three sides lined with box pews. The two-manual organ, built in 1865 by Foster and Andrews, was cleaned in 1927 and restored in 1989. The churchyard holds war graves of five First World War soldiers and two from the Second World War.