The church, occupying a central
position in the village, is built in stone with tiled roof,
and is almost entirely a careful Victorian reconstruction
dating from 1876, incorporating parts of a much earlier
building.
The tower, 14th Century, is
topped by an octagonal stone spire. Entered by a south door,
the nave is flanked by north and south aisles and transepts,
and a chancel the east wall of which is partly 12th Century.
The north arcade retails its original octagonal 14th Century
columns. Fragments of mediaeval and 12th Century stones are
built in as features in the interior walls of the porch.
Six bells hang in the tower,
together with a fine clock by Joyce of
Whitchurch (1876) which keeps perfect time; winding
up provides weekly exercise for the churchwardens.
Inside, a mid- 15th Century rood
screen with elaborate traceried
heads divides the nave from the chancel. Sadly the 1876
restorers went to great lengths to provide elevated floor
levels in the chancel, thereby reducing accessibility.
A record board lists the Rectors
from 1222, and by the south door the larger board, a fine
example of 18th Century sign writing, lists several ancient
charities (now combined); the main benefactor was the
Revd. Dr. Richard
Rysley, Rector of Stretham in
1553, others being Lady Effingham Howard and Mrs. Martha
Digby. The charities are to help
the poor and to provide education; they are still fully
operational.
In the south transept there is a
good brass effigy of Dame Joan Swan who died in 1497; she
was mother to two successive Rectors of Stretham, John and
Richard Ryplingham. Note the
wedding ring on her right hand.
A black marble slab in the
chancel commemorates Anne, wife of former Rector Dr.
Brunsell 1662-78 and sister of
Sir Christopher Wren who was engaged on work at Ely
Cathedral. Dr. Brunsell spent
years in fierce and complicated litigation with the
cathedral officers and others over church and tithe
disputes.
Later memorials in the chancel
commemorate the Revcl.
Stitt, his wife, and son,
Tragically his son
Innes, an accomplished poet, was
killed in France in the last weeks of the 1914-18 war. In
the south transept is his poem “The Last Leave”.
A few rare
Serotine bats use the tower as a roost, together with
the more common pipistrelles and
some Brown-Long-Eared colleagues. Outside, the churchyard
was closed to burials in 1885.