St. James Church with its spire almost 200 feet high is a local landmark, visible from many local roads and also from the M1 motorway and the West Coast railway line. Its earliest parts date from Norman times. Perhaps one of its most memorable events was in 1804, when after a terrible storm the spire collapsed, later to be rebuilt twenty feet less than its original height.

"When we were young the Church was involved in everything in the village. We had Sunday School in the village hall. Lots went on at the Church. The organ was pumped by bellows."