About St. James

Overlooking the beautiful Clee Hills, the church of St. James the Great, Lower Gornal stands proudly on a hill between Gornal Wood and Sedgley.

In the early nineteenth century, land was donated to the people of Lower Gornal by the Earl of Dudley to provide burial ground and a church. The parcel of land stretched to Summer Lane, where the vicarage was built and allowed the creation of “The Vicarage Field” which was the site for numerous church activities, fetes, bonfires etc., until the late 1960’s.  As the old vicarage fell into disrepair, the land was sold and a new vicarage was built next to the churchyard.

The first Vicar, with the wonderful name of Theodosius Theodosius, was previously a minister at the Congregational church of Ruiton.  He was ordained in the Church of England and became vicar of St. James the Great from 1823 until 1848. When Fr. Gary is appointed, he will be our fifteenth priest.

The church was extended in 1888, adding a Chancel, Apse and High Altar.  A tenor bell was installed in the upper belfry.  The altar has locally painted wooden panels of Resurrection scenes, sadly covered by the altar frontal and only visible after the stripping of the High Altar on Maundy Thursday.  The baptistry was built at the base of the lower tower chamber with a fine stone font on a double-decker granite stone dais with wooden cover.  The organ is in a recess on the south-west side of the Chancel and Sacristy similarly on the north-east side.  A majestic rood-styled reredos at the end of the sanctuary cupola was given in memory of those who died in the 1939-1945 War.

All windows in the Sanctuary are of stained-glass, the latest two, given in memory of the Hickman family and depicting The Resurrection and The Ascension, were added in 2021.  Two windows on either side of the Chancel arch, depict the Annunciation and the Incarnation.  The Baptistry window depicts Pentecost and was given in memory of a former churchwarden, Ernest Friend and his wife Maud.

Stations of the Cross, each framed in ebony with embossed alabaster characters in a blue background, surround the Nave walls.

The Lady Chapel on the south-west side of the nave has a wood-cased reredos in the High Germanic woodcarving style, which houses an oil painting depicting the Virgin and child.  St. Alban, proto-martyr of England and St. Chad of Lichfield stand on the left and right side respectively.  St. Alban’s face bears a striking resemblance of Bernard Craig Keeble Job, a second lieutenant, killed in action in 1915 at the first battle of Ypres and the son of our fifth priest.  The reredos in his memory was painted in 1916 and signed

“J. Eadie Reid, a noted panel painter of Christian subjects.  The Lady Chapel houses a magnificent statue of Our Lady and a statue of St. James the Great is on the north-east edge of the Chancel arch.  A statue of Our Lady of Walsingham was introduced in the south-east side of the Nave in 2005.

How to find St. James’ The Great

Address: Church St, Shallcross Ln, Dudley DY3 2HN