Introduction
Lying north of Burton beside the river Dove, Stretton
was a small village until extensive housing development
took place in the second half of the 20th century. There
is still much farmland, however, on the west and east
sides of the village.
Formerly a township in Burton ancient parish,
Stretton was later a civil parish covering 1,247 a.
(505 ha.). (fn. 4) Despite its proximity to Burton, it did not
become part of the municipal borough in the 19th
century but was in Tutbury rural district until the
creation of the East Staffordshire district in 1974.
The boundary on the south-east side of the township
ran up the west arm of the river Trent and then up the
river itself, where it formed the county boundary with
Derbyshire. The county boundary on the north-east
side followed the river Dove in the Middle Ages, (fn. 5) but
by the late 16th century it ran mostly along the mill
stream which leaves the river near Dove Cliff. That was
still the boundary in the later 18th century, even
though the bridge over the Dove was then a joint
county responsibility. (fn. 6) By the 1820s the boundary no
longer ran the full course of the mill stream but
deviated southwards to the river Trent. It was restored
to the line of the river Dove in 1991. (fn. 7)
A boundary change in 1985 added some land on the
north and west sides of the township respectively from
Rolleston and Outwoods civil parishes, but transferred
the whole of the area east of the railway line to Burton. (fn. 8)
In 1991 land from Egginton (Derb.) was added to
Stretton in order to restore the county boundary to the
course of the river Dove, and the area of Stretton civil
parish then became its present 1,115 a (451 ha.). (fn. 9)
The underlying rock is mudstone, overlain on the
west side of the township with bands of alluvium, river
terraces, and glacial gravel. The soil is a slowly permeable fine loam mixed with some clay. (fn. 10) The land lies at
its lowest, c. 143 ft. (43 m.), beside the river Trent.
Stretton village stands at 176 ft. (54 m.), and the land
continues to rise to the west, reaching 200 ft. (61 m.)
on the boundary.
POPULATION
Nine people were assessed for tax in 1327. (fn. 11) The adult
population listed in an Easter Book probably of the
1550s was 106. (fn. 12) In 1660 seventy adults were assessed for poll tax, excluding servants, and in 1665 twentyfour households were assessed for hearth tax, with a further thirteen households too poor to pay. (fn. 13) The
population was 330 in 1801, rising steadily to 374 by
1821, 410 by 1841, and 472 by 1861. It was 484 in
1871 and then rose more sharply to 698 by 1881 and
825 by 1891. It was 857 in 1901 but had fallen to 804
by 1911 and to 789 by 1921. In 1931 it was 904. With
pre- and post-war housing expansion, the population
had reached 1,934 by 1951, 2,222 by 1961, and 4,258
by 1971. A slight fall to 4,151 by 1981 was reversed by
renewed housing development and in 1991 the population was 7,329. (fn. 1)
Figure 64:
Stretton township
COMMUNICATIONS
Main Roads The Burton-Derby road was turnpiked
in 1753, and by 1757 there was a tollgate just over the
north side of the mill stream. (fn. 2) Beech Road was the
main route to Stretton village until Princess Way was
laid out in the earlier 1980s along the line of a dismantled railway. (fn. 3)
Bridges There was a bridge carrying the Derby road
over the river Dove between Staffordshire and Derbyshire by at least the earlier 13th century, when it was
called Egginton bridge after the adjoining parish in
Derbyshire. Later in the same century the bridge was
rebuilt and maintained by John of Stretton, prior of
Burton abbey, after whose death the inhabitants of
Egginton refused to make a contribution to its upkeep,
claiming that responsibility rested with the abbey: an
inquest of 1256, however, found that the bridge was
maintained by the alms and legacies of the whole
neighbourhood (patria). (fn. 1) Still called Egginton bridge
in 1294, it was known as Monk bridge in 1394 when
the Crown granted a chaplain permission to collect
alms for its repair. The chaplain built himself a chapel
on the bridge, and in 1398 a chantry was established
there dedicated to St. Anne, evidently in honour of the
queen. (fn. 2) By the mid 16th century Egginton parish was at
least partly responsible for its upkeep: two of its church
bells were sold in 1548 to raise money for repairs. By
the late 17th century the bridge was a county responsibility shared by Staffordshire and Derbyshire, who
widened it in 1775. (fn. 3)
A new bridge over the Dove was built on the north
side of Monks bridge when the road was realigned in
the 1930s, and it was retained when the A38 bypass was
opened in the late 1960s. (fn. 4) Monks bridge survives as
part of a slip road.
What was called Small bridge in 1301 was presumably a bridge over the mill stream to the west of the
river Dove. It was known as Little Monks bridge in
1762, when it was repaired at the cost of the lord of the
manor. (fn. 5)
Canal and Railways The Trent and Mersey canal,
whose Burton stretch was completed by 1770, runs
through the centre of the township. It is carried over
the river Dove by an aqueduct. (fn. 6)
The Birmingham-Derby railway line running diagonally across the east side of Stretton was opened in
1839. (fn. 7) A station called Stretton and Clay Mills on the
North Staffordshire Railway Co.'s branch line between
Tutbury and Burton was opened in 1901 on the west
side of Stretton village. It was closed for passengers in
1949 and demolished in 1964. The track was removed
after the line was closed completely in 1968, and the
northern stretch running into Rolleston was converted
in 1972 into a country walk named the Jinny Nature
Trail after the train which ran between Tutbury and
Burton. The southern stretch of the line was relaid in
the earlier 1980s as a road called Princess Way. (fn. 8)
SETTLEMENT
Stretton village The name Stretton is Old English and
means an estate or village beside a Roman street
(straet), a reference to Ryknild Street which ran diagonally across the township. (fn. 9)
The present village lies on higher ground some
distance west of the Roman road, on a site possibly
first occupied in the 13th century when Burton abbey
was expanding its direct landholding in the area. (fn. 10) In
the later 18th century houses were clustered around a
large green, (fn. 11) where the present Anglesey Arms public
house, so called by 1891, existed as the Marquis of
Anglesey in 1834. (fn. 12) A church was built in 1838 and a
National school opposite it in 1842. (fn. 13) By the late 19th
century the village had spread southwards along the
west end of Beech Road, and some council houses were
built there and in Church Lane and Hillfield Lane in
the early 1920s. (fn. 14) Council houses at the east end of
Beech Road near its junction with Derby Road and
private ones in closes off the east side of Derby Road
were probably built in connexion with the opening of
the Pirelli rubber works near by in 1929. The Beech
hotel existed by 1932. (fn. 15)
The village began to expand rapidly in the late 1940s
and early 1950s, when the rural district council built
houses in Clay Mills Road and Dovecliff Crescent, at
the north end of Church Road. Further council houses
were built in Hall Green Avenue in 1957 and in an
extension, Priory Lands, in 1968; the Jordan Avenue
private estate on the east side of Church Road also
dates from the 1960s. (fn. 16) A shopping centre to cater for
the increasing population was built c. 1970 on the site
of a farmhouse in the angle of Church Road and
Hillfield Lane. (fn. 17)
There was considerable private house building in the
1980s in Guinevere Drive and Lancelot Drive (on the
west side of Church Road), and in Athelstan Way and
Britannia Way (on respectively the north and south
sides of Bitham Lane). The Western Park estate beside
the Trent and Mersey canal off Princess Way was built
in the early 1990s, and in the late 1990s the Stretton
Park estate was being laid out on the north side of
Hillfield Lane near the canal.
Clay Mills After the corn mill north-east of Stretton
village was replaced by a forge in the mid 18th century, a
settlement known as Clay Mills developed near by along
the Derby road. (fn. 18) About a quarter of the township's
population lived there in the earlier 19th century. (fn. 19)
Dovecliff Hall In the 1790s Thomas Thornewill, the
owner of a forge converted from Stretton corn mill, built
himself a house beside the river Dove at Dove Cliff in the
north of the township. (fn. 1) The grounds in the late 1840s
covered 39 a. (fn. 2) Thornewill was succeeded in 1843 by his
son Edward (d. 1866), (fn. 3) whose widow Mary continued to
live at Dove Cliff until her death in 1880. (fn. 4) In 1881 their
son, Edward John, sold the estate to William Joseph
Smith of Alvaston (Derb.), who also bought the family's
iron works at Stretton. Smith died in 1891, and in 1897
his widow Frances sold Dove Cliff house with 55 a. to
Hugh Spencer Charrington, a Burton brewer, already
the tenant. (fn. 5) Charrington died apparently in 1921, and
the house remained unoccupied in 1928. (fn. 6) It was a hotel
in 1932, but seems to have been a private house again by
1936. (fn. 7) Known as Dovecliff Hall by 1987, it was opened
that year once more as a hotel, still its use in 1999. (fn. 8)
Built of red brick with stone dressings on a square 5bayed plan, the two-storeyed house has a hipped roof,
sash windows, and external doorways with Ionic
colonettes. The north projecting porch was added,
probably when the house was re-ordered internally in
the 1890s or early 1900s.
Wetmore Hall Farm Wetmore Hall Farm on the
township's southern boundary existed by the later
1750s, and was probably built to replace a house a
short distance to the south at Wetmore, in Horninglow. (fn. 9) The house in Stretton was rebuilt in the earlier
19th century, and a barn survives dated 1818 with the
initials of members of the Harrison family, the
tenants. (fn. 10)
Services As in Burton, mains water was supplied by
the South Staffordshire Waterworks Company, and
houses were connected to Burton corporation sewers
from the late 1930s. (fn. 11) Clay Mills pumping station was
built in the early 1880s as part of a new sewerage
system for Burton. (fn. 12)
SOCIAL LIFE
The Paget Lodge of Oddfellows (Manchester Unity)
was established in 1882. It was amalgamated in 1989
with the newly-formed Trent Lodge in Burton. (fn. 13)
A village hall was built on the south side of Church
Road in 1960, and was named the Priory Centre when
extended in 1987. (fn. 14)