Stretham

There is an entry for Stretham in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TL5174/stretham/] [accessed 19 April 2016], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. The British Museum Catalogue (1844+) records a sketch of the font at Stretham Church, in pencil, "drawn by Samuel Lysons Sq.: 5 in. x 4 in. [Add. 9461. fol. 67]", but there is no indication of the date of the object. The Victoria County History (Cambridge and the Isle of Ely, vol. 4, 2002) notes: "The fabric, in so far as it is ancient, is mainly of early-14th-century date, except the east wall of the chancel which appears to belong to the end of the 12th century. In 1876 the church underwent a severe restoration. [...] The font is modern." A plan of the interior of the church in the VCH shows a font in the west end of the nave, right against the northwest wall of the tower. The entry for this church in English Heritage [Listing NGR: TL5119774610] (1952) reports a 13th-century font in this church, a tapering octagonal basin on a round central shaft and eight detached colonnettes with moulded captals and bases, the bases water-holding. If the font is not modern, it appears heavily re-tooled, with a single moulding around the lower basin sides; the whole must have been drastically restored, like the church itself, in 1876; otherwise it is a modern font.