How To Trace The History of a Building

The Houses in Little Stretton

Little Stretton, like Great Stretton, may have been acquired later in the 17th century by the Hewetts and from them have passed to Sir George Robinson in 1766. Certainly Robinson was one of the larger landowners in Little Stretton at its inclosure in 1771, though the award does not mention a lord of the manor. In 1831, however, a later Sir George Robinson was styled lord of the manor. By 1870 the manor had been acquired by G. Heap and before 1880 by H, L, Powys-Keck ;49 the latter family apparently still possessed the manorial rights in 1928.The land had been acquired by the Co-operative Wholesale Society, Ltd., in 1919 by its purchase of the Powys-Keck estate.

The majority of the houses and farms in the village date from the 18th century, they are two-storied and built of red brick with slate roofs.

The houses in Little Stretton are situated either side of the main road. There are no shops, and no pub, just a telephone box and a post box.

The Church is at the south end of the village whilst the chapel building is to the north end.

The Manor House

The Manor House, in the south-west corner of the village, is a red-brick building of two and three stories, square in plan. The earliest external work is on the eastern side of the house where there is a projecting stack and a tall round-headed stair window, all built c 1720; the west wall of this portion now forms the central spine wall of the southern half of the house, but cellar lights at its base indicate that it was formerly external. The northern half of the building contains a central chimney stack, which may well have survived from a former 17th century house, possibly that occupied by Thomas Andrews and is assessed for 7 hearths in 1664. The range, which is of three stories, was presumably rebuilt in 1774, a date which, together with the initials D.M., is cut in brick at the north-west angle. It has pedimented gables to east and west and the eaves cornice, carried across the base of the west pediment, is interrupted by a round-headed garret window. The central door on the north side may have served at one time as the main entrance. The present principal front faces west. This part of the house appears to have been built soon after the north range and the classical entrance door has a decorative fan-light- Many of the internal fittings date from the late 18th century and the Regency period when numerous minor alterations took place. An Adam style marble fire-place in the present drawing-room is a modern addition. The stone staircase is an early 19th century improvement, which involved an alteration at the first floor landing. All three portions of the house have different floor levels.A room in the north range has exposed ceiling joists and a wide-open hearth with a side oven, forming part of the central stack.
North of the house and on the west side of the quadrangular lay-out of the farm buildings is a long brick barn with a hipped slate roof The side walls have large blank recessed ovals and two segmental-headed doorways between them; these are blocked and converted to windows. The range was probably built c1800. A stable block on the south side of the yard is of the same date.

The Old Staircase in The Manor House

The Manor

In the Domesday Survey Stretton is listed as belonging to the royal soke of Great Bowden, but no distinction is made between Great and Little Stretton. It is difficult to distinguish, in later references, between land in the two Strettons and it seems likely that Little Stretton was not always regarded as a separate manor. Some land in Little Stretton also belonged to King's Norton manor. It is probable, however, that the 16 librates of land granted to Richard de Camville before Michaelmas 1156 constituted Little Stretton. Before Michaelmas 1191, this land had been acquired by Robert de Harcourt in right of his wife, who is said to have been de Camville's daughter.

The first reference to the Harcourts' lands as a manor is in 1228, though it was simply styled 'the manor of Stretton' with its soke. Part of the soke of Great Bowden had become known as the soke of Stretton and was coupled with the manor on several occasions. The Harcourt family remained as land-owners until the early 15th century, Thomas Harcourt dying possessed of the manor of Stretton in 1420-1. Parts of the Harcourts' holding were held by under-tenants. It seems likely that in the 14th and early 15th centuries the Harcourts held Little Stretton jointly with land in Great Stretton and that it was not a distinct manor; in 1391, for example, Thomas Harcourt's court at Stretton was held 'according to the customs of the court of Great and Little Stretton', and in 1330 and 1417 the land was said to be held from the Ferrers family of Groby, who were the overlords of Great Stretton.

The Harcourts were apparently succeeded as tenants-in-chief by the Astley family, perhaps as a result of the marriage of Thomas Astlev about 1350 to Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Richard de Harcourt. In the early 16th century Richard Astley was holding the courts of Stretton soke at Little Stretton; estates in Foxton, Smeeton Westerby, Cranoe, Carlton Curlieu, Galby, King's Norton, Great Stretton, and Little Stretton all owed suit to the court. In 1500 land in Little Stretton was held from William Astley by Thomas Kebell of Humberstone, who at the same time held land in Great Stretton. In 1571 , at the death of Henry Kebell, his two daughters took the Stretton property into other families, and much, if not all, of it was sold. In 1613 the so-called manor of Little Stretton was sold by Kebell's grandson John Bowes to Edward Andrews. This was perhaps not the whole of the Little Stretton property for in 1654 Richard and Andrew Halford sold half of Little Stretton manor to George Faunt; it had perhaps been part of the lands in Great and Little Stretton and Great Glen bought by Richard Halford in 1621.

The Elms

The Elms, a farm-house on the east side of the village, is a good example of early 18th century building, L-shaped in plan with a symmetrical frontage and central entrance facing north, The front portion has brick key-blocks to the windows; the rear wing, formerly the kitchen, is slightly later in date and has a moulded brick eaves cornice and stone window key-blocks. This wing is presumably on the site of an earlier house, which remained until the present front block was built. A projection in the angle of the L contains the original staircase with turned balusters and moulded handrail. Several panelled rooms, little altered from the 18th century, remain. An altered brick barn in the yard to the east is of the same date.

The Elms Cottage

The Elms Cottage is a 19th century farm-house of polychrome brickwork with a low hipped slate roof brick angle pilasters, and windows with prominent stone key-blocks, The house was probably built c.1830-40 by Sir George Robinson. Church Row, a gabled range of four tenements with a communal yard, was built by H, L, Powys-Keck in 1866, presumably for his tenants. Dob Hall is a brick building, apparently of the 19th century. The former smithy, with open shoeing bay, is of comparatively recent date, possibly rebuilt c 20 by the Co-operative Wholesale Society, Ltd. Two pairs of Council houses on the west side of the village street near the church were erected after the Second World War on the site of two old cottages.

Easoms Buildings

A cottage known as Easoms Buildings, opposite the site of the old smithy, may date originally from before 1800,

Top Farm Cottage

Top Farm Cottage is a modernized house of the 18th century.