St Matthew's Church, Stretton

St Matthew’s Church stands in the village of Stretton in Cheshire, built from red sandstone beneath Westmorland slate roofs. The church has a five-bay nave with aisles, a two-bay chancel, a north vestry and a three-stage west tower topped by a plain parapet. A lych gate from 1889 marks the entrance to the churchyard, where a stone cross war memorial rises about five metres high. The building began as a chapel for the Starkey family in the 13th or 14th century and later became the Oratory of St Saviour by 1527. The church’s history includes rebuilding after ruin in the 17th century and a Commissioners’ Church built in 1826–27 designed by Philip Hardwick. In 1859 Richard Greenall commissioned George Gilbert Scott to add a chancel, and after Greenall’s death in 1867 Scott rebuilt the rest of the church as a memorial. The tower carries clock faces with twelve-letter mottoes chosen from over eighty suggestions by the Churchwarden, Mr Wallace Miln, including “Time is not all” and “Forget not God”. Inside, the nave roof is of red deal with oak pews and a stone font topped by a carved oak canopy. The pulpit was designed by Scott in 1859, and the organ by Henry Willis was installed in 1876 with additions in the 1920s. The sanctuary tiles are believed to be Minton encaustic work, and the east window was made by Trena Cox in 1939. The churchyard holds war graves of three First World War soldiers and one Second World War airman, alongside the 1923 war memorial cross.