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Stretton Stretton is on the eastern side of the A1, less than nine miles north of Stamford. The place-name is a common one for villages on Roman roads – it is the tun ('settlement') on a straet . At the time straet always meant a former Roman road. In all probability they were set up to provide food (for people and animals) and overnight accomodation for travellers. They may well also have been responsible for maintaining a section of the route, especially fords. Stretton was in Alstoe Hundred. Stocken seems to have been a small daughter settlement of Stretton. But the scant earthworks disappeared in the 1970s. There is a single mention of a deer park in 1291. But nothing more is known. Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, was Lord of the Manor of Stretton in the fifteenth century. I'll leave it to Wikipedia to attempt to describe the complexities of his life. Despite the dominance of the A1 some pleasant old farm buildings survive. The early seventeenth century Stocken Hall (altered about 1774 and in 1876–7) became part of a prison farm. Cuthbert Bede The clergyman and novelist Edward Bradley (1827–1889), who used the pen-name 'Cuthbert Bede', became rector of Stretton in 1871. The church was in need of restoration and almost £2,000 needed to be rasied. To achieve this Bradley gave lectures in Midland towns. He was regarded as an authority upon 'Modern Humourists', 'Wit and Humour' and 'Light Literature'. In 1883 he left Stretton to become vicar at Lenton with Hanby, near Grantham, where he died six years later. He is buried at Stretton however. Stained glass windows commemorate him. The Ram Jam Inn   The Ram Jam Inn long before the A1 was dualled. The Ram Jam Inn on the A1 is always regarded as being in Stretton, although technically it is in Greetham parish. The original building was demolished in November 2022 and replaced by an uninspired service station. Despite much unfounded speculation to the contrary, the inn took its name from an enticing potent drink, concocted from a recipe brought back from India by an eighteenth century landlord, Charles Blake (died 1791). Everything you could ever want to know about the Ram Jam Inn. The Jackson Stops A pub called the White Horse got the nickname 'Jackson Stops' because it was up for sale for several years in the late 1970s or early 1980s with the estate agent's sign prominently displayed on the exterior. And subsequent owners formally changed the name to the Jackson Stops Arms and later Jackson Stops Public House. Sadly it closed at the beginning of 2025, although Jackson Stops the estate agents are still in business. The building is Grade II Listed and was formerly a house. There is a date stone inscribed 1721 but some of the building may be earlier. Gnurdling or nurdling was played at 'Jackson Stops'. Apart from perhaps one pub (maybe in Frome) this was the only place in Britain which had an unbroken tradition of gnurdling, although other pubs have revived the game. Although some online sources say gnurdling was reintroduced to the Jackson Stops in the 1980s. According to an anonymous informant in 2004, the game involves teams throwing 13 old pennies into a wooden loo seat in a bench in the bar. Players stand about ten to twelve feet back. The first member of team A throws all thirteen pennies. Any that do not go in are given to the second member of the team and so on until all thirteen pennies are in the target. However teams alternate and the game is usually down to getting the last penny in. Just to confuse the unwary, at least one entirely different traditional game is also known as nurdling. St Nicholas church St Nicholas church has a Romanesque doorway with the tympanum 'upcycled' from an Anglo-Saxon coffin lid. Next to the porch is a wheel cross which seems to be part of a late tenth or early eleventh century grave marker. The stone was quarried at Clipsham. The north arcade is early thirteenth century. Most of the rest of the building is sixteenth or seventeenth century, extensively but sensitively restored in 1881–2. Access to the church is along a lane opposite the former Jackson Stops inn in the village.   So close to the A1 but seldom seen – Stretton's secluded church. Photograph taken in 2002.   Romanesque doorway with the tympanum made from a repurposed Anglo-Saxon coffin lid.   Elaborate spiritus or 'soul effigies' on eighteenth century limestone gravemarkers. Victoria County History page for Stretton. Back to top of this page     Back to home page   This website does not gather or store any visitor information. Copyright Bob Trubshaw 2026 No unauthorised copying or reproduction except if all following conditions apply a: Copy is complete (including this copyright statement). b: No changes are made. c: No charge is made. www.hoap.co.uk/rutland

Rutland's history home page what's new? glossary bibliography Rutland's geology Rutland's boundaries Rutland's rivers long, long ago prehistoric Rutland Roman Rutland long ago Anglo-Saxon Rutland Rutland's place-names waterborne transport around the sixth century Rutland's early churches Anglo-Saxon sculpture in Rutland The Matter of Rutland what the Normans did for Rutland Romanesque sculpture in Rutland Rutland in medieval times Rutland's scratch dials Rutland's medieval carvings Rutland's sepulchral effigies Rutland's saltways Rutland in Tudor times Dissolution in Rutland not that long ago Rutland in the 17th century pinfolds and pounds in Rutland dovecotes in Rutland Rutland in the 18th century turnpiking Rutland Rutland's springs and wells changes in Rutland's agriculture since 1800 seems like yesterday Rutland's dialect Rutland's folk customs travellers in Rutland watermills and windmills in Rutland breweries in Rutland gasworks in Rutland ironstone quarrying in Rutland Zeppelins over Rutland redundant telephone exchanges in Rutland Second World War in Rutland WWII airfields and pillboxes in Rutland the making of Rutland Water Rutland Weekend Television free online history resources Victoria County History: Rutland volume one Victoria County History: Rutland volume two free PDFs of Rutland Record issues 1 to 50 old OS maps Historic England Listed buildings database Sepulchral Effigies of Leicestershire and Rutland Open Domesday English Place-Name Society database Wikipedia list of places in Rutland (with links to village entries) Wikipedia list of people from Rutland researching and writing local history getting started free advice from 2005 asking curious questions (YouTube video) local history groups in and around Rutland Belton-in-Rutland History Society Cottesmore History and Archaeology Group Langham Village History Group Lyddington Manor History Society Rutland Local History and Record Society Uppingham Local History Study Group you may also be interested in free PDFs written by Bob Trubshaw Earliest Churches in Nottinghamshire How Anglo-Saxons Found Their Way Anglo-Saxon Leicestershire Conversations in Churchyards Little-known Leicestershire and Rutland Bob Trubshaw's YouTube channel Introduction to medieval carvings Anglo-Saxon and Romanesque carvings How Anglo-Saxons found their way Anglo-Saxon shrines at fords Meetings at triangles Rota's Land and Franni's Land Reading Romanesque fonts Church and manor The significances of square headdresses Early churches and waterborne trade Charnwood slate gravestones and C18th trade routes Ironstone quarries of Leicestershire Roman roads in north-east Leicestershire Salt ways in Leicestershire Why Melton Mowbray needed to called 'middle town' Evolving Anglo-Saxon agriculture Nottinghamshire's earliest churches Ploughs not piety? Economic regeneration in the C7th Were Anglo-Saxon weaving huts women-only places? Vale of Belvoir Chronicle Barrowby Until Now website Sepulchral Effigies of Leicestershire and Rutland