Place:Stretton Parva, Leicestershire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Stretton Parva (which Wikipedia says is now known as Little Stretton) is a small village and civil parish in the Harborough District of southeast Leicestershire, England. Because of its size, in the UK census of 2011, the population was combined and published with that of the neighbouring civil parish of Burton Overy.

Within the parish, to the west of Little Stretton village, lies a deserted medieval village called Stretton Magna (or Great Stretton).

Gartree Road, a Roman Road, runs through the parish, adjacent to both Little and Great Stretton, and is the reason for those settlements' names. Stretton means "settlement on a Roman Road" (from the Old English "stræt" and "tun"). Of the seventeen places in England, all but two are situated on Roman roads.

The church of Little Stretton is the Chapel of Ease, St Clement, Stretton Parva (in the parish of St John the Baptist, Kings Norton, Leicestershire). This confirms that although Stretton Parva is a civil parish, ecclesiastically it is still a chapelry.

Research Tips

• The map on the place-page for Billesdon Rural District illustrates the location of the various parishes.
• Victoria County History - Leicestershire - Vol 5, pp256-264 - Parish: Kings Norton. (London, 1964) British History Online. University of London.
• From this Findmypast page you can browse the Leicestershire parishes which have parish register transcripts online.
• From this Ancestry page you can browse the Leicestershire parishes which have parish register transcripts online.
• For both of the above sites, a subscription is charged. Transcriptions of these records may also be available free of charge on the FamilySearch website.
• A further collection of online source references will be found on the county page for Leicestershire.