Stretton en le Field
| Stretton en le Field | |
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 Stretton Church is redundant |
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 Stretton en le Field
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| Stretton en le Field shown within Leicestershire | |
| Population | 36 (2001) |
| OS grid reference | SK304119 |
| Civil parish |
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| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Swadlincote |
| Postcode district | DE12 |
| Dialling code | 01530 |
| Police | Leicestershire |
| Fire | Leicestershire |
| Ambulance | East Midlands |
| EU Parliament | East Midlands |
| UK Parliament | |
Stretton en le Field is a small village and civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England. It is about seven miles (11 km) south-west of Ashby de la Zouch, and according to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 36. At the 2011 census the population remained less than 100 and is included in the civil parish of Chilcote.
Stretton Bridge carries the A444 road across the River Mease, which forms this small parish's northern boundary.
Stretton en le Field is one of the Thankful Villages having suffered no fatalities in the Great War of 1914-18 when eleven men went from the village to fight and all eleven returned.
The name Stretton-en-le-Field is explained as a settlement ton/tun, lying in open country field/feld, by a Roman road stret/straet; with the influence of French on English history following the Norman Conquest having a clear impact on the village's current name.
Of the in England, all but two are situated on Roman Roads; the Roman road from which the village gains its name, however, has not yet been positively identified. Evidence supports that both the A444 (Nuneaton-Burton Upon Trent) and the Tamworth Road (formerly the A453; Tamworth-Ashby-De-La-Zouch) were used by the Romans. Although the A444 passes closest to the village, the straightness Tamworth Road suggest it was the Straet the village gained its name from.
The remains of two Roman buildings have been found on the boundary between Stretton and the neighbouring parish of Appleby Magna. Archaeological excavations done in advance of the construction of a hotel at the M42/A444 junction revealed the remains of a 4th-century farm. Roman coins were found on the site from the reigns of Emperor Constantine I (307-337) and Emperor Magnentius (350-353), as well as 4th-century pottery and roof-tiles. The farm buildings included a corn-drying oven, sunken buildings containing chaff from threshing and fragments of quern-stones. Other finds include a corroded iron knife-blade, copper alloy pins, an iron hobnail, and animal bones including those of cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs and cats. The site was completely destroyed with the construction of the Appleby Park Hotel; the hotel itself is to be demolished to make way for the HS2 railway between Birmingham and Sheffield. This farm is thought to have sat adjacent to a Roman Villa; The Old Rectory, also in Appleby Magna is thought to have been constructed on these remains. The adjacent road, Rectory Lane, was previously known as The Golden Way Road, and before that as Goldherewey/Goldhordewe, referring to a hoard of Roman coins found there in medieval times.
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