|
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. Regular ringing resumed at the church in June 2011 after several years' silence. St James' is one of eight churches in the Ely Team Ministry. ==History== St James' Church stands in the centre of the small village of Stretham, which has a population of 1,685. The village lies south-south-west of Ely in Cambridgeshire, England, about 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.〔Shaw (2004) ODNB (Lancelot Ridley ) 〕 Mark Ridley (1560–1624), one of Lancelot's sons, became the physician to the Tsar of Russia.〔Stone (2004) ODNB (Mark Ridley ) 〕 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 £〔Using RPI as describe in (Choosing the Best Indicator to Measure Relative Worth )〕 in ). 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〔Baptism 1558–, banns 1759–1963, marriages 1558–1952, and burial 1558–1956 (Church of England only)〕 are kept in the County Records Office, Cambridge.〔Notice inside porch〕 Since 1990, St James' Church has had an ecumenical agreement with the Stretham Methodists.〔Copy of agreement displayed on the notice board inside the porch〕 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. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「St James' Church, Stretham」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|