St James has come a long way from its humble beginnings in 1950 as a mission church in a converted cowshed to serve the new housing estates being built in Clayton.

In 1969 St James became a Parish Church, when the new Parish of St James the Great Clayton was created.

The current church was built in 1966 , of modern design with steel beams, glass wall to the West Entrance & a copper roof, with a Church Hall & Vicarage. Designed in the Scandinavian style, the building is distinctive both internally and externally and is known locally as “the church with the steep green roof”.

Behind the altar there is an imposing 17' sculpture of the Risen Christ upon a 40' cross.