St James' Parish Church is an Anglican

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

 church in Wetherby

Wetherby

Wetherby is a market town and civil parish within the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Wharfe, and has been for centuries a crossing place and staging post on the Great North Road, being mid-way between London and Edinburgh...

, West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....

. The church is also sometimes referred to as The Parish Church of Wetherby.

History

The first stones were laid for the oldest parts of the church on 1 April 1839 by local man Mr. Quenton Rhodes (after whom the Rhodes House council flats are named) who contributed significantly towards the initial £4000 to pay for the building of the church. The church was built from stone quarried at Collingham

Collingham, West Yorkshire

Collingham is a village and civil parish south east of Wetherby in West Yorkshire, England. It is in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough. The clergyman, the Reverend William Mompesson was born there in 1639....

.

The Chancel was built later as an extension and can be seen from the change in roofline. The pinnacles of the tower were removed in 1939 after they became unsafe. These were replaced with the present day cap-stones.

Buildings

There are also outer buildings which once housed a Sunday school, and are now rented out to local organisations. Prior to compulsory education, the Sunday school offered free schooling to poor children from industrial-working families.