St. James Parish Church
Address:
Holetown , St. James
Opening Hours:
Open All Year From 7-0 To 17-30 (Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun)
Distance From Airport:
20.4 Km (12.68 Miles)
Distance From Bridgetown:
9.8 Km (6.09 Miles)
Located in Holetown (see map), St. James Parish Church stands on one of the oldest parcels of consecrated land on the Island, often known in Barbados as "God's acre".
The original wooden structure was built in 1628 near the landing site of the first English settlers to Barbados, who arrived on February 17, 1627. After a hurricane on August 31, 1675 which devastated most of the island, a stone structure replaced the former wooden building in the early 1690's. Another violent hurricane struck in 1780 and according to 'Schomburgk's History of Barbados' only two churches and one chapel remained; St. Andrew, St. Peter and All Saints.
There is no specific record of what happened to St. James in the storms of 1675 and 1780 but after the hurricane of 1831, St. James was not among the churches listed as having been destroyed. Schomburgk's states that in 1846 at the time of his writing this book, the building was 54' X 40' in size with a seating capacity of 550 and a congregation of approximately '360 souls'.
After nearly 200 years the walls of the original stone building began to decay and were partly demolished and replaced by a larger, more substantial structure in 1874. At this time, the nave roof was raised on new pillars and arches. The enlarged building was consecrated by Bishop Mitchinson on Easter Tuesday, 1875. Except for the sanctuary and north porch, added in 1900's, this is substantially the building still in use today.