St James, Stretham, Cambridgeshire

I Location

Site Location
Stretham
National Grid Reference
TL 512 745
County
traditional: Cambridgeshire
now: Cambridgeshire
Diocese
medieval: not confirmed
now: Ely
Dedication
medieval: not confirmed
now (or name of monument): St James
Type of building/monument
Parish church

II General Description

Exterior, view from SE.

Exterior, view from SE.

Exterior, view from S.

Exterior, view from S.

Church Plan

Church Plan

Aisled nave with clerestory, N and S transepts, chancel with vestry to N and organ loft to S and W tower with octagonal stone spire. Externally the rubble tower and its ashlar spire, with two tiers of dormers, are clearly 14thc. Everything else looks 19thc. In fact the N arcade and the chancel are 14thc. too, but heavily restored. Construction is of coursed ashlar, much of it irregular. The only 12thc. features are sections of string course neatly reset inside the S porch.

IV Interior Features

5. Interior Decoration

c. Miscellaneous

S porch, interior to S with reset stones.

S porch, interior to S with reset stones.

S porch, interior to S with reset stones.

S porch, interior to S with reset stones.

Reset in the interior S wall of the S porch are seven sections of double chamfered string course set vertically, here numbered from L to R.

(i) Stringcourse fragment
S porch, reset stone 1, chevron.

S porch, reset stone 1, chevron.

Section carved with quirked roll chevron on face and R chamfer only.

Dimensions
l.of section 0.35 m
w. of section 0.145 m
(ii) Stringcourse fragment
S porch, reset stone 2, sawtooth.

S porch, reset stone 2, sawtooth.

Section carved with quatrefoils in chip-carved squares on face and R chamfer only.

Dimensions
l. of section 0.36 m
w. of section 0.14 m
(iii) Stringcourse fragment
S porch, reset stone 3, quatrefoils.

S porch, reset stone 3, quatrefoils.

Section carved with sawtooth on face and R chamfer only.

(iv) Stringcourse fragment
S porch, reset stone 4, chevron.

S porch, reset stone 4, chevron.

Damaged section carved with quirked roll chevron, only two faces are visible.

(v) Stringcourse fragment
S porch, reset stone 5, sawtooth.

S porch, reset stone 5, sawtooth.

As (iii) but reversed.

(vi) Stringcourse fragment
S porch, reset stone 6, quatrefoils.

S porch, reset stone 6, quatrefoils.

As (ii) but reversed,

Dimensions
l. of section 0.30 m
w. of section 0.14 m
(vii) Stringcourse fragment
S porch, reset stone 7, chevron.

S porch, reset stone 7, chevron.

As (i) but reversed,

Dimensions
l. of section 0.355 m
w. of section 0.14 m

VII History

VIII Comments/Opinions

A sawtooth string course survives at Haslingfield, and fragments of one at Great Shelford. Here at Stretham we have string courses carved with three different motifs, suggesting that the 12thc. church was a building of some pretension.

IX Bibliography

  • G. R. Bossier, Notes on the Cambridgeshire Churches. 1827, 73.
  • The Ecclesiastical and Architectural Topography of England: Cambridgeshire (Architectural Institute of Great Britain and Ireland), Oxford 1852, 106.
  • C. H. Evelyn-White, County Churches: Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. London 1911, 166-67.
  • F. S. L. Johnson, A Catalogue of Romanesque Sculpture in Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. M.Phil (London, Courtauld Institute), 1984.
  • D. and S. Lysons, Magna Britannia. Cambridgeshire II, pt I, London 1808, 266.
  • N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England. Cambridgeshire, Harmondsworth 1954 (2nd ed. 1970), 462.
  • The Victoria History of the County of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely, IV, 1953, 155-57.