Little Stretton is a village and former

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

, now in the parish of

Church Stretton Church Stretton is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire, England, south of Shrewsbury and north of Ludlow. The population in 2011 was 4,671.

, in the

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

district, in the ceremonial county of

, England. In 1961 the parish had a population of 80. Little Stretton became a civil parish in 1899 being formed from Church Stretton, on 1 April 1966 the parish was abolished and merged with Church Stretton. It is located in the

Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty The Shropshire Hills National Landscape is a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in Shropshire, England. It is located in the south of the county, extending to its border with Wales. Designated in 1958, the area encompasses o ...

between the

Long Mynd The Long Mynd is a heath and moorland plateau that forms part of the Shropshire Hills in Shropshire, England. The high ground, which is common land and designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, lies between the Stiperstones range t ...

and Ragleth Hill. Lying on the B5477 south of the market town of

Church Stretton Church Stretton is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire, England, south of Shrewsbury and north of Ludlow. The population in 2011 was 4,671.

; similarly, the small village of

All Stretton All Stretton is a village and a now separate Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Shropshire, England. Much of it is covered by a Conservation Area (United Kingdom), Conservation Area. Geography All Stretton lies about a mile to the nor ...

lies to the north of Church Stretton on the same road. A

milestone A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway, railway line, canal or border, boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks like Mileage sign, mileage signs; or they c ...

in the centre of the village on the B5477, which is called Ludlow Road at this point, indicates that

Ludlow Ludlow ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is located south of Shrewsbury and north of Hereford, on the A49 road (Great Britain), A49 road which bypasses the town. The town is near the conf ...

is away, to the south. The centre of Church Stretton is away via the B5477. The Quinny Brook runs from Ashes Hollow through the village and it is a popular place to begin walks up the

. The village lies between 590 and 616 feet

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. Ragleth Hill lies immediately to the east of the village, on the other side of the Welsh Marches Line and A49. Little Stretton once had its own railway halt: Little Stretton Halt railway station. To the southwest are the hamlets of Minton and Hamperley, which are part of Church Stretton parish and are included within the parish ward of Little Stretton. The modern-day parish of Church Stretton is sometimes referred to as "Church Stretton and Little Stretton".

Amenities and attractions

The village has a large

Conservation Area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewoo ...

. There are many

Listed buildings In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

and structures in the village.

Church

There is a small

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

in the village, built in 1903 - "All Saints". It is a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

church and is one of three in the

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of Church Stretton, along with the churches in All Stretton and Church Stretton. The parish is part of the

Diocese of Hereford The Diocese of Hereford is a Church of England diocese based in Hereford, covering Herefordshire, southern Shropshire and a few parishes within Worcestershire in England, and a few parishes within Powys and Monmouthshire in Wales. The cathedral i ...

. It is a very unusual church (for England in the present era) for its construction is timber with a

thatched roof Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge ('' Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

replacing the original corrugated iron roof.

Pubs

As of 2012, there are approximately 110 dwellings in the village. Little Stretton today has two

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

s: the ''Green Dragon'' and the ''Ragleth Inn'' (historically the "Sun Inn"), both of which serve a wide range of local

real ale Real ale is the name coined by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) for ale that is "brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous ca ...

Brockhurst Castle

Half a mile to the north are the earthwork remains of the 12th-century Brockhurst Castle. It is situated on private land with no public access.

Notable people

Novelist and short story writer Beatrice Harraden (1864-1936) spent summer holidays lodging at the Green Dragon, inspiring her short story ''At the Green Dragon'' (published 1894).

Oliver Sandys Marguerite Florence Laura Jarvis, also known under the pseudonym of Oliver Sandys (7 October 1886 – 10 March 1964) was a British writer, screenwriter, and actress. She used several other names and aliases, such as Countess Barcynska, Hélène B ...

(1892-1964), widow of

Caradoc Evans David Caradoc Evans (31 December 1878 – 11 January 1945), was a Welsh story writer, novelist and playwright. Biography Evans was brought up in a Welsh language, Welsh-speaking community in Rhydlewis, Ceredigion, Cardiganshire, and although he ...

and a novelist in her own right, lived at the Ancient House, across the road from the church, from the 1950s. A later novel, ''Quaint Place'' (1952) was set in this area. The poet

Peter Reading Peter Reading (27 July 1946 – 17 November 2011) was an English poet and the author of 26 collections of poetry. He is known for his deep interest in nature and the use of classical metres. He was widely regarded as an influential alternative pre ...

(1946–2011) lived in the village.'An Interview with Peter Reading by Robert Potts' ''Oxford Poetry'' The horologist Charles Jendon was a well-known figure in the village for many years; his knowledge of long-case clocks was well known to many specialists in the field. The music critic Ephriam Monk, who championed the early work of Lionel Crill, who himself was a pioneer in the use of the

theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone, etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named aft ...

in classical music, lived in the village between 1952 and 1959.

Gallery

File:The Ragleth Inn, Little Stretton - geograph.org.uk - 255655.jpg, ''Ragleth Inn'' in the village Image:Little Stretton today.jpg, Ludlow Road where it crosses the small Quinny Brook from Ashes Hollow - the beige milestone, facing the other way, can be seen

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Shropshire Former civil parishes in Shropshire Church Stretton