South Leigh - St James the Great Church

There has been a church here since Norman times, although most of the existing church is late 15th century there is a Norman doorway in the south wall.

The church is full of interest with several fine medieval wall paintings: the Virgin and St Michael (on the south wall), a lively Last Judgement (above the chancel arch), St Clement of Rome (on the north aisle) and the Seven Deadly Sins (at the western end of the north aisle). There is also some very old stained glass including what is probably the Yorkist sun in roundels on the windows of the north aisle; the font dates to the 15th century and there is a 16th brass to William Secoll (1557).

The pulpit is Jacobean and it was here that John Wesley, who went on to found Methodism, preached his first sermon in 1725 - when he next preached in South Leigh (in 1771) he was no longer welcome in the church!