Church Of St Nicholas

The Church of St Nicholas is a Grade II* listed building located in Stretton, dating from the 12th to the 14th centuries, with later additions in the 17th and 19th centuries. It is constructed of coursed rubble stone and ashlar, topped with a Collyweston slate roof and red ridge tiles. The church features a nave with a west bellcote, a north aisle, north and south transepts, a chancel, and a south porch.

The west side has a stepped buttress with a 19th-century lancet window on either side and a 13th-century double bellcote. The openings of the church are characterized by triple-chamfered arches that die into the uprights. Above the nave is a spirelet. Inside, the nave boasts a fine 13th-century two-bay arcade with moulded round arches supported by cruciform piers featuring free-standing shafts and stiff-leaf capitals. The 19th-century common rafter roof includes two tie beams.

The north aisle contains a 13th-century west lancet and a 19th-century flat-topped north window with stained glass dating from around 1880. The north transept is in the Perpendicular style, featuring a three-light north window and a two-light northeast window, with a corbel bracket and niche below. The chancel arch is double chamfered, with the inner arch having a hollow chamfer that dies into polygonal capitals adorned with nail-head decoration and head corbels beneath. The 13th-century chancel has a 19th-century boarded polygonal roof, a north lancet with stained glass from 1876, and a restored Perpendicular east window with stained glass from 1882, flanked by corbel brackets. The south side includes a flat-topped window and a south lancet with stained glass from around 1875.

Notable features include early 14th-century simple sedilia and a double piscina in the chancel, a 17th-century south transept with a four-light stone mullion window and a small southeast lancet, and a 13th-century south porch with a simple Norman south doorway. The church also houses a 13th-century font, 18th-century wall monuments in the chancel and south transept, and a 19th-century carved oak pulpit, choir stalls, and lectern, along with a 17th-century altar rail.