St James Marden Ash, lies in the parish of High Ongar. It was in 1879 that local residents decided that they needed their own church to provide a place of worship for those unable to travel to St Mary’s High Ongar through age or ill health. The public were invited to subscribe to the building of a new church. A benefactor, Mr James Trayler of Southsea in Kent generously gifted the land to the church. However, despite this kindly donation, insufficient funds were raised for the rest of the project and so a necessary modification to the original design was achieved by excluding a proposed semi-circuIar Apse.
On the 29th August 1882 the ceremony of laying the foundation stone was performed by Sir H J Selwin-lbbetson Bart., MP. During the construction stage the Bell was hung in the solid stone bell-cote at the west-end of the Church, it had been cast during 1882 by "Mears & Stainbank" at their foundry in London. Less than a year later on the Friday 26th January 1883 the Service of Dedication of St. James’ Church took place attended by a large congregation of local people.
The completed building, described as being in the late Perpendicular style, was large enough to house a congregation of one hundred. The church was entered via the porch at the west-end of the Nave, to one
side of the porch was a small vestry for the administering clergy and on the other side was a little chamber for the church organ.
The church had exterior walls laced with old English flint, having box-ground Bath-Stone groins to the angles. The buttresses, copings, plinths, eaves and strings and other parts were also of stone. Above the western end of the church was a bell-cote of solid stone, surrounded by a gable cross and the entrance below was gabled and frtuned in timber.
St James church circa 1900
The roof was tiled and surmounted at the east-end by an oak cross. Internally the walls were of red brick, the roof had exposed rafters and a central aisle composed of red Staffordshire tiles with the remaining flooring covered in wood blocks. There was a coke stove which provided heating via floor gratings and for comfort rush-seated chairs.
The church then served the local community for 62 years until January 1945, when an enemy V2 rocket fell close-by damaging it beyond repair.
In 1958 a new church was built on the site.