These four Guides have been assembled and edited by Canon Brian Davis, Priest in Charge of the Gaulby Group since October 2013 - please contact him if you find any mistakes or inaccuracies (revbdavis@aol.com)
LITTLE STRETTON CHURCH (ST JOHN THE BAPTIST, OR ST CLEMENT)
The church is situated on the west side of the village. It is built of ironstone with limestone dressings and consists of an aisleless nave and chancel under one roof with a west tower and south porch. It dates from the late 12th century to which period belong the west and side walls of the nave, including the north and south doorways. If the two doorways are indeed Norman, as Pevsner suggests, then this building dates back to the beginning of the twelfth century - about 900 years old. This makes it by far the oldest church in the Gaulby Group.
The south door has an outer order decorated with round-billet ornament; the north door is blocked, the result of an order made in 1832 and fulfilled by 1835, when the two brick buttresses were added. A third buttress was added later.
WINDOWS
There are no windows on the north side. The South side has an odd assembly of five windows, the earliest of which, though restored, has forking tracery of c. 1300, at which time the church was enlarged by rebuilding the chancel so that its side walls were aligned with those of the nave. The remaining windows on this side are of two lights, two with reticulated tracery under pointed arches and two with cusped lights under square heads, all work of the later 14th century. The east window, of three lights with restored trefoil heads, was inserted late in the 15th century; the coping at this end retains stones in situ from an earlier more steeply-pitched roof.
The main body of the church - nave and chancel - has been well cared for over the last century. It was substantially though sympathetically restored in 1899 through the generosity of Miss Louisa King, Mr and Mrs Powys-Keck and others, recorded in a tablet in the nave. The architect for the restoration was Henry L. Goddard of Leicester. This work included the roof which had last undergone a major alteration in 1796 when it was covered in Swithland slates in place of lead and a ceiling was inserted. The east window and many of the south side windows appear to have been partly renewed at this time by Goddard.
In more recent years the roof tiles have been restored, and the stonework re-pointed. At the time of writing the tower is in urgent need of restoration. There are plans to put the work in hand, when the funding is found.
TOWER
The West tower is unbuttressed; the lower part is Thirteenth century, the rest is Fourteenth century or later. It is small, and rises in three stages defined by limestone strings to a lowpitched pyramidal roof. The tower arch and altered lancets in the east and west walls are the remains of the earlier tower; the tower arch has a two-centred rear arch which is rebated as if to carry a door. The former lancet opening in the west wall now contains a cross-shaped loophole. Above this in the central stage is a quatrefoil opening. The belfry stage has tall Perpendicular two-light transomed openings except on the north side where there is a single-light opening with a mutilated cinquefoiled head. These window openings are a curious mixture of ironstone and limestone and the tracery appears to be badly fitted. On the east face of the tower is preserved the weathering of an earlier nave roof.
THE SOUTH PORCH has a brick front and segmental entrance arch of the early 18th century; the white wooden gate may date from 1795 when a gate was ordered to be placed in the porch to keep out children and cattle.
THE FONT is 'Octagonal, of the type often found in South England, made of Purbeck. In each panel two blank pointed arches' (Pevsner). Probably of about 1300.
BENCHES: there are some very old pew ends towards the back (West) end of the church. Elsewhere there is a side bench with a bench-end and a poppy head.
PULPIT Hexagonal, eighteenth century (1776), with fielded panels, cornice, and decorative book-rest dates.
A small locker in the north wall of the chancel has a frame and door of 17th-century date.
COMMUNION RAIL Probably 1620 - 30 (Pevsner) It has heavy turned balusters and finials; a similar rail with balusters now serves as the front of the choir stalls on the south side of the chancel. It may have originated from the screen that separated the chancel from the nave in 1776, when it was reported, together with other fittings, to be dilapidated.
There are no memorials earlier than the 18th century. Mural tablets include those to John Perkins (d. 1760) and his wife Susanna (d. 1749), together with their son Bartholomew (d. 1762) and his wife Mary (d. 1763). Near to the south door are tablets to Charles Seamark (d. 1755) and his wife Dorothy (d. 1776), and Jane (d. 1798), wife of the Revd. Dr. John Walker.
There is one bell, made by Edward Arnold of St. Neots in 1781.
The church plate consists of a silver cup, bearing the date 1782 but purchased by subscription about 1875, and two pewter plates. No early registers survive.