The earliest record of a chapelry on the Green is in the will of William Selfe dated 1461. A chapel serving the Hospital of St James and St Denis may have been on the same site. The Hospital disappeared after 1338.
St James' Church, Southbroom, has in times past been known variously as the Green church, the Garrison church or the church by the pond. The old parish school across the road was known as the Green school and its head as the Green headmaster, not particularly complimentary to an educationalist. St James' is arguably the best known church in Devizes - to those who pass through the town. The church by the Crammer pond on the green is a picture-postcard view popular to tourists. In days when the West Country was the venue for North Country holiday-makers the Green was the ideal spot for breakfast picnics and the "church by the pond" the annual stopping off place.
Once upon a time the Crammer was much larger and St James's
Church much smaller. Indeed the only feature to withstand the
change of time has been the fine church tower
which with one notable exception, has remained unscathed since
the 15th century and the reign of Henry VII.
The exception came during the Civil War when in 1643 the tower
got in the way of two cannon shots from the direction of Coate as
the Parliamentarians under General Waller besieged the Royalist
borough in the prelude to the Battle of Roundway Down. More than
a century later Francis Cousins, a millwright of Etchilhampton,
found one of the cannon balls while working in the belfry in
about 1780. He took it home with him. The two entry holes made by
the cannon balls may be seen on the east face of the tower today.
The tower, the upper part of which is highly decorated in the perpendicular style, is climbed annually by the choir on Ascension Day morning, to sing hymns at the top. It holds the ringing chamber and six bells. The church's wooden font cover is made of old wood from the belfry.
The tower is the only ancient part of the church. The main body of the church goes back to 1832, the year after it had shaked off the yoke of Bishops Cannings, to become a Parish Church. The church is dedicated to St James the Great and there he is to be found in the in the second panel from the left in the big east window, with his traveller's staff and purse.
The oldest records show the church to have been a chapelry in the parish of Bishop's Cannings, but it had its own civil officers and registers dating from 1573, which indicates it was something more than a "chapel of ease". A certain amount of guesswork suggests it might earlier have been a chapel attached to a leper hospital that is thought to have existed in nearby Spitalcroft.
The jurisdiction of Cannings remained in force until 1831, when the Rev. Alfred Smith, who had been in charge of St James's under the Vicar of Bishops Cannings since 1826, became Southbroom's first vicar. Old ways died hard. Southbroom was still known as a chapelry, its wardens were still called chapel wardens and the first three vicars of Southbroom were officially "perpetual curates".
In the same year, 1831, that Southbroom became a separate parish it was considered necessary to enlarge the body of the 15th century church. It had no sanctuary, the east wall lining up the nave and two aisles. On the south side there were only two windows instead of today's three, but there were two south doors. The porch stood at the westernmost end of the south wall, where the third window now is, and there was a small Tudor doorway, without a porch, near the east end, part of the easternmost window being cut away to make room for it.
In case it proved impossible to raise sufficient funds for a complete rebuilding the prudent Alfred Smith drew up an alternative scheme to alter and enlarge it. This proved unnecessary and the church was not simply enlarged but rebuilt, with the exception of the tower. It was all done with what today may seem enviable dispatch. A select committee was appointed in July 1831; a plan drawn up by My Benoni White was adopted in August and one year later the church was reopened for Divine Service on August 10th 1832. The Vicar of Bishops Cannings, Archdeacon Macdonald, preached and a deputation from the choir of Salisbury Cathedral attended. The architect was a Mr Pennistone and the expeditious builder was a Mr Plank.
Happily the old church memorials survived the restoration, being embodied in the new. The most distinguished is the Nicholas tablet on the north wall, of veined white marble flanked by Ionic pillars. The Nicholas family, of Roundway, had branches in many parts of Wiltshire and claimed descent by marriage from the youngest daughter of Oliver Cromwell. The Nicholas memorial window at the east end, north side, was restored in 1990. Indeed the parish of Roundway has played a significant role in the history of St James's. Members of the Colston family, of Roundway House, are commemorated in the first two memorials, carved in relief, on the north wall of the sanctuary (an affecting deathbed scene), in the fine window at the east end of the north wall and in the two prayer seats at the west end of the church. Colston was the family name of the 1st and 2nd Barons Roundway. Other memorials on the north wall commemorate the Roundway families of Hayward in the 18th and 19th centuries and Coward in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Rev. Alfred Smith resigned the living in 1838 and retired to Old Park, Devizes. dying in 1877. His son, A.C. Smith, was a distinguished ornithologist and wrote a standard work, The Birds of Wiltshire.
Alfred Smith's successor, the Rev. Benjamin Dowding, was 26 when he came to Southbroom, He held the living for 32 years until his death in 1870; he was the longest serving incumbent of St James's and the only one to die in office. He has a memorial plaque, with Latin inscription in the sanctuary. He is known elsewhere in Devizes for the part he played in the creation of St Peter's parish in 1866 and he laid the foundation stone of St Peter's church.
In 1844 the churchyard was extended at the expense of the Crammer pond, part of which was taken into the churchyard and the wall on the east side of the Crammer was built. Presumably it would have been too much to suggest any further incursion into the pond for the sake of Southbroom's dead and the churchyard was closed in 1876. It is used today for the burial of ashes.
Benjamin Dowding was the first Vicar to live in the present vicarage, which was built in 1845 on the other side of the road. His successor, the Rev. Safford Tordiffe, was vicar for 13 argumentative years (1870-1882). He made considerable alterations and additions to the vicarage and its grounds, largely at his own expense. Gas lighting arrived in 1876, allowing the time of Evensong to be changed from 3.00 p.m. to 6.30 p.m., a change that was not popular with all.
Two years later, 1878, Le Marchant Barracks, up the London Road, was completed and St James's was to become the garrison church of the Wiltshire Regiment, with all that that implied in the way of parade services. The recruits were accommodated in the side-galleries that ran north and south and the Duty Bugler came down to polish the brass on Saturdays. An association with the regiment was to continue actively until the amalgamation of the Wiltshire with the Royal Berkshire Regiment in 1959 and the closing of the depot. It survives today in the Old Comrades' Association's annual parade service each June. Those heady days are recalled in the army corner at the south east of the church, with the Wiltshire Regiment's laid up Colours, its shrine and its memorial windows to the Zululand campaign of 1879 and the 1914-18 war.
Beneath the latter window may be found a detailed description of the laid up Colours. Beneath this window a grille-fronted shrine contains the Book of Remembrance of the Wiltshire Regiment's Fallen of the 1914-18 war. A glass topped case nearby holds the book of remembrance to the regiment's fallen on the 1939-45 conflict. A second case, case fixed to the east wall between the pulpit stair and the choir vestry door, on the north side, holds the book of remembrance to the fallen of the parish of Southbroom in 1914-18. The church's altar rails are in memory of a Colonel of the Regiment, Major General Sir Edward Evans.
The Rev. Stafford Tordiffe resigned in 1882 in a strong disagreement with the parish on the question of yet again enlarging the church, which, perhaps because of the soldiery, he considered to be essential. In 1897 the church was reseated in memory of the Meek family that lived at the Ark in Long Street, But it would be a century before any major extension to the church was carried out. This was the addition of the choir vestry at the north east corner during the incumbency of the Rev. Cecil Plaxton (1932-37). It was his successor, the Rev, Andrew Douglas (1937-46(, however who made St James a place of beauty. He removed the ugly and unsafe side-galleries, dignified the east end and enlarged the altar. Such improvements did not meet with total approval, but Douglas went ahead, likely meeting much of the cost out of his own pocket.
Douglas also moved the choir to the west gallery. St James's has enjoyed a long tradition of choral singing. By common consent this reached a peak in the 1960s during the incumbency of the Rev. Michael Currah (1960-69). He had the organ rebuilt and the organ-case gilded. This colourful addition was completed during the term of his successor Canon Kenneth Brown (1969-83), with the colouring of the embossed ribbing above the north and south aisles and the colouring of the roof of the sanctuary, which was further improved by the removal of the four painted panels depicting plump Victorian angels, affixed to the east wall.
The church today is little changed save for addition of some extra cupboards at the west end and a toilet in the south porch. In recent years the choral tradition has once again begun to grow with a strong choir of boys, girls and adults now involved not only in music making at Southbroom but in an even wider context. Today as in past generations the church is much loved by its parishioners and faces new challenges in maintaining a church fit for the worship of God as the 21st century approaches.