Looking for Stretton in an atlas of England reveals the confusing fact that there are at least thirteen Strettons. All but one of them are clearly situated on ancient Roman roads, confirming the late Saxon name-origin, ‘street-ton’. Interestingly, most of these villages do not appear to lie directly astride the road, but often about a quarter of a mile away, as is the case with Stretton-under-Fosse, Stretton-on-the-Fosse and Stretton-on-Dunsmore which are all just off the Roman Fosse Way. Later settlements such as Grantham or Stilton developed alongside major traffic routes, when the road brought the advantage of trade rather than the threat of possible attack from invading tribes.

Stretton in Rutland forms a similar pattern of a small nuclear village within reach of, but not threatened by, the great Roman road to the north, Ermine Street. Had it been founded a few hundred yards west, on the Great North Road, it would probably have developed into a flourishing market or staging post for travellers. Significantly two of its inns, the former ‘Winchelsea Arms’ and ‘New Inn’ of 1791 (now ‘Ram Jam’ and ‘Greetham Inn’ respectively) were placed to take full advantage of the road. Stretton, however, remained a backwater, so that at the time of the Norman Conquest and the great Domesday survey it is recorded as a ‘berwick’ or outlier of Market Overton, a larger settlement which still retained the evidence of Roman occupation.

In 1086 the two villages were part of the extensive landholding of Countess Judith, niece of William the Conquerer, and contained land for 12 ploughs, with 35 villagers and 8 smallholders. There were 40 acres of meadow and woodland measuring 1 league by ½ league. No mill or church are recorded, although from the evidence of its Saxon arch, Market Overton church must certainly have existed, while Stretton church was probably begun soon after the date of the Domesday survey.

During the medieval period Stretton contained additional homesteads in the field to the south of the church. The following illustration from The Medieval Earthworks of Rutland by Robert F. Hartley (Leicestershire Archaeological Report No. 7) shows evidence of ‘the foundations of two large buildings and some smaller ones, in an area of old closes’ (small enclosed fields).

The same publication contains a drawing based on aerial photographs showing that Stretton was once surrounded by an extensive area of ‘Ridge and Furrow’ (large open fields divided into strips) to the north and west. The parish boundary between Stretton and Thistleton cuts across the subdivided ‘Furlongs’ of these open fields, testifying to the probable pre-Conquest date of this field system. Ermine Street and the road to Thistleton are, however, earlier than the field system for which they supply boundaries. Since the recent ploughing up of the earthworks in Clay Field, near the western roundabout, few remnants of ‘Ridge and Furrow’ now remain, a small area beside the A1 exit into Stretton from the north being the most apparent.

Records of Stretton in the early medieval period are sparse, although the Calendar of Patent Rolls, quoted in the Victoria County History of Rutland, records that King Edward I stopped here twice on his way to and from Scotland, while his son, Edward II, visited in 1316. For some time the ownership of the Manor of Stretton had been the subject of a protracted legal dispute, but it came to the Crown in 1241 following the death of the two claimants. It was granted for short periods to various tenants, and was part of the dower of the Queen Mother, Eleanor of Provence, in 1280. In 1291 one of the Queen’s servants, Ralph de Rede, was granted as a reward for his long service custody of the enclosed hunting park which probably included much of Stretton’s woodland.

For some time in the early 15th century Stretton was held by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, brother of Henry V. After his wife had been convicted of sorcery, he was arrested for treason and died in 1447. However the taxpayers of Stretton had reason to be grateful to the Duke who obtained for all tenants and their successors in Stretton the right to be forever free:

from all tenths and quotas of tenths, either of goods or chattels, which might be granted in parliament from the laity, and that they should be only taxed to the fifteenth after the same manner as the boroughs and ancient villages which were demesnes of the crown.

The manor of Stretton was granted by the Duke of Gloucester to the king’s cook, John Hemingburgh, for life, but by 1501 it had come into the possession of John Hussey who was beheaded in 1537 following the Pilgrimage of Grace. It remained in the Hussey family until 1555, and from 1570 to 1613 was held by the Harington family of Exton. The Stocken estate remained under separate ownership until both passed to the Heathcotes of Normanton in the 18th century. Until the Reformation, Stretton Church was held by the Knights Templars and their successors, the Knights Hospitallers; however, when monastic property was confiscated by Henry VIII, the church passed into the control of the Lord of the Manor.

Although the manor of Stretton included most of the village and surrounding fields, some land and property in and around Stretton were held independently by freeholders who were able to buy, sell and bequeath as they wished. Several of these transactions survive in the archives of Browne’s Hospital, Stamford (now in Lincolnshire Record Office), recording ownership of land which was later granted to the Hospital. Some of these Stretton residents of the 13th century included Richard de Strettone, Ralph de Strattone, Jordan de Strattone, Nicholas de Thisiltun. From the 14th century individual surnames were developing, as the following examples show:

Inquisition held at Strettone on Wednesday the feast of Saint George the Martyr Anno 22 Ric II (1398) regarding a claim by John Wright of Halyoake to hold a messuage and seven acres of arable land in Strettone upon the death of Henry Edesone his father. Claim allowed, the said John being the son and heir of the said Henry and of the age of three years at the time of the inquest. Grant from William Obyn of South Wytham to William Broune of Staunford, Marchant, William Stokk, Knt. and Thomas Stokk, Clerk, of a messuage with croft adjacent and seven acres of arable land in the town and fields of Strettone and Gretham Co. Rutland. Dated at Strettone on Friday next after the feast of the Assumption, 20 Edw.IV (1479).

The description of lands held ‘in the fields’ of Stretton is evidence that at this period the grant of land might comprise a number of scattered strips in each of the common fields, rather than a consolidated holding.

The reference to William and Thomas Stokk provides an interesting link to the early history of Stocken. The meadow of ‘Stokkyng’ is mentioned in a document of 1326 and seems to have been connected with the family of ‘Stokk’ or Stoke. There are apparently traces of a thirteenth century building with low windows in the fabric of Stocken Hall, but the present building was erected by John Brown in the early 17th century. William Browne, founder of Browne’s Hospital in Stamford, had been married to Margaret Stoke whose brother Thomas Stoke, as Browne’s executor, assigned ‘tenements in Stretton’ to endow the new almshouses in 1494. The rent books of Browne’s Hospital contain many references to the property and land held in Stretton, and the ‘Warden and Confraters’ retained their rights in Stretton until the 19th century.