In last month’s issue, there was an update about some of the restoration works of St James. The complete work needed is significant for which we’ll need a big grant application, but, as mentioned last month, we are blessed to have secured some smaller grants plus with the busy fundraising, we have been able to have the gutters, hoppers and drains cleared, essential repairs to the tiled roofs of the church and also the Bier House have been carried out. Sadly the south and north aisle roofs need extensive work and despite temporary repairs we still have a few leaks! However, the steeplejacks’ ladders are up on the spire again and it’s hoped that the NE pinnacle will be removed within the next couple of months, which means that, all being well, we should be able to have the bells rung again! I know that our Bellringers have very much missed ringing at St James and many of the community have commented that they miss hearing the bells too. The Southam Bellringers have kept busy though by organising a Walking Treasure Hunt in September and despite the awful weather that afternoon, lots of fun was had, and lots of tea and cake consumed! It was lovely to meet new people whilst raising another £280. On another damp day, it was lovely to welcome Lee Ellard, Southam Town Mayor, and civic dignitaries from Warwickshire. It was hoped that Bernard from Southam Heritage would be able to lead a history tour of Southam from The Grange to St James, but sadly rain stopped play. However, we were treated to the really interesting talk in St James and after an interval for chat, tea and cake, visitors then explored the church with snippets of stories, fun facts and history of the church from Jane Jones, Churchwarden of St James. All in all a very enjoyable afternoon. As part of the Heritage Open Days, St James was open over 19th & 20th September for fascinating tours of the church with lots of fun facts. I even helped one of the Brownies with her research for a Brownie Badge! Bernard from Southam Heritage kindly set up a historic display and members of St James set up displays of historical artefacts including a very old, large, family Bible, an ancient grave book, a beautiful christening robe, and even a canon ball from the civil war! It was lovely to welcome lots of visitors - some who had travelled quite a distance - and have really interesting conversations….oh and tea and cake! October is looking just as busy as we begin the month with two churchyard clear up mornings on Friday October 3rd & Saturday 4th from 9 until 12 - weather permitting of course. If you can spare a bit of time to help that would be wonderful - I’ve been told that there will be coffee and cake at half time! On October 19th, we are very much looking forward to welcoming Southam Primary Choir, Melody Makers and the Windmill Singers for an afternoon concert. Please do look out for more information on town and church noticeboards, social media or our website https://bit.ly/SouthamStJames Tickets will be available via the church office which is open Monday, Wednesday & Thursday 9-1. 01926 812413 or southamstjames@gmail.comAnd lastly, on October 30th Footprints Stay & Play Group will be hosting a Light Party from 1 until 3pm. The group is usually for 0 to 5s, but as it’s half term siblings will be welcome. There’ll be the usual fun and refreshments plus light themed crafts and activities, so dress in your brightest clothes and join in the fun. No charge, but donations are welcomed.As always, thank you for your support and making Southam to great community that it is.Blessings,Vikki
A BIG thank you to everyone who popped into St James while we hosted a number of artists and also displayed artwork from Southam St James Academy and Southam Primary School during the Southam Arts Trail. The diverse creativity was truly breathtaking! An even BIGGER thank you needs to go to volunteers from the church and the lovely Southam community who baked and donated yummy goodies, served refreshments, set up and cleared up, welcomed and had chats with visitors from near and far!Then as if we weren’t busy enough (!) we then held a Sunday afternoon concert hosting Divertimento - Music for Voices. Divertimento were chosen as one of just ten choirs to perform the world premiere of Russell Hepplewhite's glorious Living Voices suite, commissioned by Stainer & Bell. We were treated to ‘Tender’ with words by Mona Arshi as well as other choral pieces. After the concert, everyone enjoyed an afternoon tea. We are very grateful to Divertimento for performing and also to Presto Music in Leamington for the loan of a piano. Over both these events, we managed to raise just over £1000 towards the Restoration Fund and a lot of fun has been had too. You’ll hear lots more about events and raising funds as we have significant work ahead to do essential works and to restore this treasured place. As mentioned a couple of months ago, these were a couple of comments from our community survey, ‘What Does St James Church Mean to You?’.“I love this beautiful building and all the space it offers. Family events are needed in this town and St James offers a great place for families to meet.”“The church to me as an outsider gave a hug at my darkest moment of need. It is a beautiful historical landmark in Southam both inside and out, supporting mental health and well-being and giving people hope and faith.”We’ve recently been gathering estimated costs for the restoration work and over the next few months hope to have estimated costs for the church to become a warmer space, a more accessible building and with improved facilities. We know that we will need to apply for large grants, but for some grants we need to raise match funding, so we are now setting up a fundraising team and we’d love this to be made up of church and community. So if you’d like to get involved in some way, do get in touch via the church office. This may be that you’d like to be part of organising events and putting the FUN in fundraising, or you may have time to help set up, or you may be happy to bake goodies or donate raffle prizes or you my have grant application experience. There’s lots of ways to get involved and give as much or little time that you have. In September there will be two ways that you can get involved. Andy Czaicka is literally going the distance by running a marathon in Warsaw, Poland and raising funds for the Restoration Fund. If you’re interested in supporting Andy, here’s the link https://gofund.me/ad8aa840 or check out our social media pages and groups. Even without the bellringers being able to ring at St James at the moment, they’re keeping busy organising this event in September, again raising funds. It would be lovely to see you at St James for….Walking Family Treasure Hunt Sponsored by Southam Bell RingersSunday, 14th September 2025Beginning at the Church between 2 pm and 2.30 pm£10 family entry (2 adults and pre-teen children) Individual adults and older children £5 eachEnquiries to the church office 01926 812413 southamstjames@gmail.com
We have had a very busy year where the focus has been on further investigating the condition of the structure of the Grade 1 listed St James Church. We have also been actively ‘Having Fun whilst Fundraising’ for essential repairs.You may well recall the sight of the steeplejacks last Spring when they were suspended by ropes from the steeple, clearing loose stonework and shrubs and assessing the condition of the steeple and tower. Their report confirmed that the tower and spire are in much need of repair. The Church Architect spent several months carrying out the Quinquennial inspection which is mandatory every five years. His report brought further worrying news to add to the above, the leaky roofs, and the struggling heating system: There are major issues with the stonework, roofs and roof abutments, window surrounds, guttering and downpipes. Built of soft local sandstone and lias limestone, it is no surprise that St James needs major renovation work after almost 700 years. St James has served our community for many generations, something of which we are very proud but that brings with it huge responsibilities. We are custodians of our heritage for the generations who will come after us. You will no doubt be aware of the outward signs of this deterioration; the clock that no longer works, the bells that can no longer be rung as the resonance would cause further damage, and the footpaths that are pot-holed and difficult to walk along.As you look around this impressive 14th Century building, you cannot fail to be touched by the Medieval wall paintings, beautiful early Victorian stained glass, impressive and rare 100 year-old carved rood screen and 16th century pulpit… and many other treasures besides. The clerestory above the congregation’s heads is 53 feet high (over 16 metres) and gives the most marvellous acoustic sound when concerts take place here.We are very fortunate in being very well supported by many in the Southam community. Our recent churchyard clean-up brought out 16 volunteers who cleared out drains and gulleys, swept, weeded and pruned. Our frequent and varied fund-raising events are well attended and beginning to raise much-needed funds. Perhaps you, your friends and family have enjoyed one of these events yourselves? Maybe you have been to a Concert? A Supper, Lunch or Afternoon Tea? Christmas Tree Festival? Heritage Open Day? Arts Festival? Have you or your children danced here as part of Project OK? Do you bring your little ones along to Footprints, our inclusive playgroup? Did you enjoy our Treasure Trail and a complementary Easter Egg? Over the next few months we are planning many more events, do please come along and encourage your friends and family to do so, too.As a result of the funds raised and support from the community, we are delighted to have been awarded grants for almost £11,000 which will top-up our funds and enable us to repair the tiled roofs, gutters, drainpipes etc. Whilst this is a ‘drop in the ocean’, the tiled roofs must be kept in a safe state of repair as so many in our community walk close to them and beneath them.Over the next couple of months we are part of the Warwickshire Open Studios and Southam Arts Trail from June 21st to July 5th (various dates) and on Sunday July 6th at 3pm, Divertimento return to perform a wonderful new concert in the atmospheric setting of St James. Tickets are available from the church office (01926 812413 or southamstjames@gmail.com) or Eventbrite. Early bird tickets £12 (before 13th June), £15 after the 13th. We hope that on a visit to St James, you will take a few moments to view our display which shows photographs taken by the steeplejacks and the Architect of some of the more major structural issues.Perhaps the final words should go to two of the many people who completed our recent survey: ‘What Does St James Church Mean to You?’.“I love this beautiful building and all the space it offers. Family events are needed in this town and St James offers a great place for families to meet.”“The church to me as an outsider gave a hug at my darkest moment of need. It is a beautiful historical landmark in Southam both inside and out, supporting mental health and well-being and giving people hope and faith.”
As I write this article in the week before Easter and enjoying that Spring has now sprung and we’ve been blessed with a number of days of warmer weather, I can’t help but smile as the tree at the cross roads of the footpaths through the church. During the pandemic, I called it the Tree of Hope. The buds have sprung into blossom and from whatever angle you look at the tree it’s abundant with blossom. Of course, over the winter once the leaves were shed, it didn’t look like that and it could be thought that nothing was happening and the tree was just dormant. But we know that’s not the case, we know that underneath there’s preparation for Spring.Recently, someone said to me that nothing seemed to be happening with the works needed to the church. I reflected on this and thought that the principle of preparation for the tree to blossom, is similar to the preparation leading to works on the church building. It may not be seen, but there is lots going on even though it’s not visible to the eye. So much background work and research has been completed over the year. Our appointed architect, Bryan Martin, has been an amazing help and source of knowledge and completed a Quinquennial survey of the church building and graveyard. We had the amazing sights of the steeplejacks of Heritage Stone Access completing a full assessment of the tower and spire and removing loose stone debris whilst they were up there! Both surveys were presented to the PCC (the leadership team) by the Architect in September and it is very clear that there is very significant work to be undertaken to restore St James and this inevitably will incur significant costs. These assessments have been vital and the professional fees have been paid by a mixture of grants and monies raised by fundraising events. Since then we’ve instructed a Structural Engineer to inspect and advise on some aspects of work needed. Anyone who has renovated a house knows that curveballs of extra work get thrown into the mix and extra work is needed before any other works can happen. On inspection of the pinnacles at the base of the spire, the Structural Engineer has advised not to ring the bells as a precaution as the vibration may cause damage to the stability of the NE pinnacle. This is the current curveball in the mix and it’s our priority to remove it, so that the bells can be rung again. As you can imagine this expert work on a Grade I listed building is not cheap and so we greatly appreciate your donations and also for all of the fundraising events that have helped with some of the works so far. One of the events happened last weekend. Over 60 people attended an afternoon tea with great entertainment from Branco, a Barbershop Quartet and raised £525 for the Restoration Fund. A lovely lady from the congregation has also been using her knitting talents by knitting Easter bunnies and chicks with a Ferrero Roche or Lindor inside and so far has raised over £160! Well done Linda! If anyone would like to donate or use their talents to raise funds or be involved in putting the fun in fundraising then so get in touch!In the meantime, thank you to everyone who has brought St James to this stage of the journey - so much work happens by you as volunteers and supporters of our community and it’s doesn’t go unnoticed. Photo by Alexas Fotos on Unsplash
