Bodley

The major Victorian restoration of the church was designed by George Frederick Bodley, one of the leading Gothic Revivalist architects in the country.

In Herefordshire he built three churches and was involved in restoring at least seven others, Brampton Abbots, Kingsland, Wigmore, Lyonshall, Kinnersley, Almeley and Burrington.

At Wigmore his work was undertaken in two phases, in 1864 the focus being on the nave and in 1868 the focus on the chancel.

He also had the porch outside the main door constructed in a 14th century style.

Central Heating Roman-Style

St James Church had  a remarkable and most unusual heating system that was installed when it had the restoration in 1864.

The heating system was based upon the hypocaust method used by the Romans when they warmed their villas and bathhouses. The Roman hypocaust had a furnace which circulated the hot flue gases through floor voids and thence through ducts or chimneys built into the walls to rise up and exit to atmosphere. The hot flue gases heated the solid floors and walls which then radiated their heat into the space to be heated.

The heating system in St James used a similar method but had 'fire pits' built in the aisles housing the furnaces. Underfloor ducts from the fire pits were used to remove and transfer the hot flue gases before dispersing them up through a tall chimney located within the Tower. Two fire pit furnaces in the floor constructed from brickwork were built close to the south wall with their flue exit ducts traversing the floors conveying the hot flue gases to the chimney.

However, the photo from around 1880 indicates that the underfloor heating system had a very short lifespan.

We can assume from the installation of the stove sited inside the nave that the performance of the underfloor heating was either woefully inadequate or needed to be supplemented.