St James' church - Stretham, Cambridgeshire - Anglican and Episcopal Churches on Waymarking.com

St James' Church, Stretham, is an active Anglican church in the village of Stretham, Cambridgeshire, England. Founded in the 12th century, it was heavily restored by the architect J. P. St Aubyn in 1876. English Heritage, a body responsible for preserving historical sites in the United Kingdom, assessed the church a Grade II* listed building. The turret clock on the east face of the tower was also made in 1876, by JB Joyce & Co of Whitchurch, Shropshire, and still keeps good time. The church has a ring of six bells hung for change ringing though there is presently no regular ringing at the church. St James' is one of eight churches in the Ely Team Ministry.

St James' Church stands in the centre of the small village of Stretham, which has a population of 1,685. The village lies 6 kilometres (4 mi) south-south-west of Ely in Cambridgeshire, England, about 119 kilometres (74 mi) by road from London. The earliest written record of this still active church is in the Liber Eliensis, a 12th century history of the Isle of Ely. In 1137, during Bishop Nigel's (c. 1100–1169) time, Anglo-Saxon conspirators were said to have met in Stretham church. Fragments of the east chancel are known to be from about the 12th century, corroborating the record of the church's existence in that period.

Lancelot Ridley (d. 1576), appointed one of the first Six Preachers of Canterbury Cathedral in 1541 and a rector of Stretham from 1560, was buried in the parish.Mark Ridley (1560–1624), one of Lancelot's sons, became the physician to the Tsar of Russia.

In 1751, Francis Blomefield, in his Collectanea Cantabrigiensia, recorded St James' as having a square tower, with four bells and a clock. The north aisle was leaded and there was a chantry chapel at the east end with a screen. He concludes this to be the Chancel of the Resurrection. At this time, the south aisle, nave and chancel were also recorded as leaded.

The church was restored very heavily in 1876 by the architect J. P. St Aubyn at a cost of £4,400 (equivalent to £306,773 in 2011). The north and south transepts were added at this time as well as the whole south aisle of the nave, the chancel, a clerestory and a new porch.

St James' Church, Stretham, is an historic building protected by Acts of Parliament. Originally, the church was listed Grade A in a publicly available register on 5 February 1952 until a resurvey and regrading by the English Heritage on 19 August 1988. Since then, it is listed as a Grade II* building, which makes the church particularly important to the country's heritage and warrants every effort to preserve it. The church records are kept in the County Records Office, Cambridge. Since 1990, St James' Church has had an ecumenical agreement with the Stretham Methodists.

St James' is part of the Ely Team Ministry, a group of eight churches: St Mary's, Ely; St Peter's, Ely; St Leonard's, Little Downham; St Michael and All Angels, Chettisham; St George's, Little Thetford; St James, Stretham; Holy Cross, Stuntney; St Peter's, Prickwillow. The Prickwillow church was closed for worship in 2008; it is part of the parish of St Mary's, Ely.

Active Church: Yes School on property: No Service Times: http://www.stjamesstretham.org/services.html Website: [Web Link] Date Built: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
Take a picture of the Church. Please try to keep your GPSr out of the photo.

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.