St James' Church, Stretham

St James' Church stands in the centre of the small village of Stretham, which has a population of 1,685.^{[nb 3]} 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,^[7] during Bishop Nigel's (c. 1100–1169) time, Anglo-Saxon conspirators were said to have met in Stretham church.^[8] 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.^[2]

Lancelot Ridley (d. 1576),^[9] appointed one of the first Six Preachers of Canterbury Cathedral in 1541^[10] and a rector of Stretham from 1560, was buried in the parish.^[11] Mark Ridley (1560–1624), one of Lancelot's sons, became the physician to the Tsar of Russia.^[12]

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.^[13]

The church was restored very heavily in 1876^[2] by the architect J. P. St Aubyn^[1][5] at a cost of £4,400^[14] (equivalent to £438,960^{[nb 4]} in 2025). 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.^[2]

St James' Church, Stretham, is an historic building protected by acts of Parliament.^{[nb 5]} Originally, the church was listed Grade A in a publicly available register on 5 February 1952 until a resurvey and regrading by English Heritage^{[nb 6]} on 19 August 1988. Since then, it is listed as a Grade II* building,^[17] which makes the church particularly important to the country's heritage and warrants every effort to preserve it.^{[18] [nb 7]} The church records^{[nb 8]} are kept in the County Records Office, Cambridge.^{[nb 9]} Since 1990, St James' Church has had an ecumenical agreement with the Stretham Methodists.^{[nb 10]}

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.^[20] The Prickwillow church was closed for worship in 2008; it is part of the parish of St Mary's, Ely.^[21]

Until 1952, the church had a ring of five bells hung for change ringing;^[27] and at this time, a sixth bell was added and one bell was recast, replacing a 1727 bell by Henry Penn of Peterborough.^{[nb 13]} The oldest bell as of 2010, is the 840-millimetre (33 in) 360-kilogram (790 lb) number four bell of 1796 by Joseph Eayre; the newest are of 1951 by John Taylor & Co of Loughborough. This set of six bells are rung from a first-floor ringing chamber above the recently constructed servery and toilets.^[28]

According to Canon K W H Felstead's records, now maintained by the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers, there have been 78 peals rung at St James' Church, Stretham, since 1952.^[29][30]

Records before 1523^[58] have not been confirmed; they have been checked (other than minor spelling differences) with the painted board in the south-west corner of the nave