Alveston, St James

The Alveston Parish Church of St James is on Church Lane in the West of the village. St James Church was built in early Victorian times and is not particularly "pretty". There is road side parking in Church Lane.

I visited for the first time on Saturday 20^th September 2008 as part of the WDCRA Southern Branch 2008 tour. The ringing room is reached by climbing a short staircase (not spiral) that leads to a large balcony that connects to the ringing room. The area has a glass screen that looks over the nave and provides a lot of space. There is lots of space to ring the 6 bells and I was told us that they did have plans to add a couple more but that plan was shelved for now. The whole space was light and airy with painted walls. I rang a Touch of Plain Bob Doubles on bell #4 and a Touch of Grandsire Doubles with me on the treble. The bells that I rang were easy to ring but the arrangement of bells was a little odd with bells #1 to #4 being in a pretty straight line. Perhaps it would look more balanced if they had the 8 bells.

The Bells

The tower has a ring of 6 bells with a tenor weighing approximately 7½cwt in A. Dove's Guide includes details of the bells at St James and more information is provided by the Coventry Diocesan Guild.