St James Church

The Church of St James the Great in Aston Abbotts faces the same problems as most other English village churches. Changes in lifestyle have seen congregations dwindle over the last few decades and income is barely sufficient to sustain the fabric of the building.

At one time Aston Abbotts boasted both Independent Baptist and Primitive Methodist chapels in addition to the Anglican Church of St James. Older residents recall Sunday evenings when there would be a stream of villagers dressed in their best clothes walking through the village on their way to chapel. Some recall, as children, attending Sunday School in the morning and chapel in the evening.

These memories are borne out by an ecclesiastical census from March 1851, which found the Sunday attendances to be as follows

St James the Great	Morning Afternoon	70 100
Independent and Baptist Chapel	Morning Afternoon Evening	120 17 19
Primitive Methodist Chapel	Afternoon Evening	112 172

The two chapels have now both been converted into private homes, the Methodist chapel closing almost without warning about ten years ago. Nowadays St James is the sole spiritual guardian of the residents of Aston Abbotts.

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