St James the Greater has in its archives, like all churches, a wealth of historical information concerning the building and its people. The late Dr Alan McWhirr was meticulous in collecting and collating this information and to him we owe an enormous debt of gratitude.
Graham Jagger has recently started to conduct some further research and has made some of this information available electronically as Adobe PDF files. It is hoped to expand this list as time goes by.
A parish is born
The church of Saint James the Greater, Leicester, a daughter church of St Peter's, Highfields, was built on the present site in 1881. Within 20 years this temporary wooden building was to be replaced by a permanent structure. This present building was begun in 1891 and was completed in 1914 when, on 24 September, it was dedicated by the Bishop of Peterborough, in whose diocese Leicester then was. But it was still a daughter church of St Peter's and it was to be another four years before the parish of St James the Greater came into being... [more]
Notes on War Memorial
The war memorial on the wall of the north aisle in St James the Greater, Leicester, commemorates those who fell in the two great wars of the twentieth century: the First World War, 1914-18, and the Second World War, 1939-45. These two phases in the history of the memorial are quite distinct and are described separately... [more]
Further information
If you would like further information or wish to access the church archives for research purposes, please contact Graham Jagger or the Church Administrator, .