Дрейтон: Тихая деревня в Лестершире и её старинная церковь Святого Иакова.

the village in Hinckley and Bosworth district

Drayton is a small village and civil parish in the Harborough district of south east Leicestershire, bordering Northamptonshire and Rutland. It is situated 6.7 miles (11 km) northeast of Market Harborough and 5 miles (7.5 km) southwest of Uppingham on the north side of the Welland valley. Nearby villages are Bringhurst, Great Easton and Nevill Holt. The church of St James in Drayton is one of the smallest churches in England.

Drayton is one of 62 conservation areas within the Harborough District of Leicestershire. The Conservation Area embraces the area of the village around the village green together with the older part of the village along the road to Great Easton. Blocks of later development on the Great Easton Road and the Nevill Holt Road are excluded as the style of buildings does not contribute to the traditional feel of the village. The Conservation Area includes the traditional and newer buildings around the green and along Hall Lane and the main street towards Great Easton. Visually the most dominant part of the Conservation Area is around the open space of the village green which gives cohesion to the settlement. From the Medbourne Road the entrance to this open area is sudden and is firmly defined by a former farmhouse and its agricultural buildings. These extend partially along one side of the triangular Green. Open roads run on each of the three sides of the green in whose centre is the tiny single cell Church of St James.

The church of St James stands on the green in Drayton and was listed as being Grade II on 7 December 1966. It is a single room built of stone and roofed with slate, constructed on the site of the former chapel which fell out of religious use in the 18th century and had been converted into a bake house by 1794. In 1878, George Lewis Watson of Rockingham Castle bought the building and proceeded to remodel it throughout 1878 79 into a mission church. The door is in the centre of the south side; the east end has one, and the west end two, lancet windows. A bell on a bracket projects from the east end. A large semi circular arch internally suggests that it was of 12th century origin. It is said to be Leicestershire's smallest consecrated church.