A Brief History of Stratton St Margaret

Driving through Stratton today it may look uninteresting, with very little to catch your eye. It has been swallowed up into the outskirts of Swindon Town, with many industrial units erected on what were once open fields. However, many of the locals and those who have lived here all their lives, and their families before them, still refer to Stratton as "the village". You will be surprised just how interesting Stratton can be once you know a little more about its history, where key landmarks used to be, and also which of the ancient pathways and streets to look along to find old interesting buildings and structures.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF STRATTON

Stratton St Margaret, once a small village, has now become the north east corner of Swindon and is rapidly losing any semblance of the village community it once was. The area of the parish of Stratton was once much larger than it is now. The majority of Gorse Hill was part of the parish until 1890 when it was taken into Swindon and a large part of the housing estate at Penhill was once fields in the parish of Stratton St Margaret.

Stratton derives its name from the Latin, strata (meaning a paved way or street) after the Roman road which runs straight through the parish from south east to north west. In the Domesday Book, taken from the survey in 1086, the name is shown as Stratone. Then, the parish was in possession of Nigel who was the physician of William the Conqueror. The village once consisted of three main areas - The Street (the area near The Wheatsheaf in Ermin Street); the area around Green Road and Dores Road and including the few houses at Kingsdown; and Stratton Green, mainly around Tilley's Lane. Various footpaths and coffin-ways joined these three areas.

The parish church of St Margaret dates back to the 13th century, with many later additions, including partial rebuilding in the middle of the 19th century. Amongst the interesting churchyard tombs is one to Sir William Hedges who became the first governor of the East India Company in the 17th century. He lived in a large house where the Crematorium now stands. The church registers date from 1608 and can be viewed at the Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office, Chippenham. Close to the church once stood the Manor House, decayed by the time of Henry VIII and vanished completely by the reign of Elizabeth I, and on this site today stands the houses in Kenwin Close. Also near the church was an Elizabethan style tithe barn, mainly of wooden construction, the village pound and the small parochial school within the grounds of the churchyard. The main tithe barn stood near Parsonage Farm in Swindon Road (both the farm and barn are now demolished).

Do re-visit these pages often as there will be various stories uploaded over the months to come about the history of Stratton.

Debra Edmonds - March 2008