East Stratton is an estate village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Micheldever, in the Winchester district of Hampshire, England. It is situated at the entrance to the landscaped grounds of Stratton Park, approximately 8 miles (13 km) northeast of Winchester.
Geography and Description
The village lies in the rolling chalk downland of Hampshire, surrounded by open farmland and woodland. It is a quintessential English estate village, with a sequence of development spanning over four centuries. At the north end, thatched cottages dating from the 17th and 18th centuries line the lane leading to the entrance of Stratton Park. Around the village crossroads and war memorial are grouped other cottages, All Saints Church (built 1888), and a farm. Further south are five pairs of early 19th-century estate cottages and the 19th-century Northbrook Arms (formerly the Plough Inn). A dozen 20th-century houses extend the village as far as Cold Harbour, once a separate hamlet. In 1931, the civil parish had a population of 230.
Toponymy
The name "Stratton" derives from Old English and means "farmstead or village on a Roman road," referring to the Roman road (via strata) between Winchester and Silchester. "East" distinguishes it from the neighbouring settlement of West Stratton.
History
The Manor of East Stratton was granted to the New Minster (Hyde Abbey) around AD 900 by King Edward the Elder and remained in the Abbey's possession until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1564, the manor was purchased by Sir Thomas Wriothesley, later Earl of Southampton. The last earl, Thomas (d. 1667), made Stratton Park one of his chief country seats and was likely responsible for first enclosing the park.
In 1667, the manor passed to Lady Rachel and her husband William, Lord Russell, who improved the estate with orchards, gardens, avenues, and groves. Lord Russell was executed in 1683 for his involvement in the Rye House Plot, but Lady Russell continued managing the estate until her death in 1723. The estate then passed to Wriothesley Russell, 3rd Duke of Bedford, who demolished much of the ancient mansion.
In 1801, Sir Francis Baring purchased the estate for £150,000, and the Baring family have owned it since. Sir Francis had the old house remodelled in the classical style by architect George Dance the Younger, who also designed new estate cottages. The house briefly became The Vyne Stratton School in the 1920s.
Open fields were enclosed between 1800 and 1850, the park was extended southward, and new cottages and the Plough Inn were built. A new school, built by Sir Thomas Baring in 1846 in the Elizabethan style, replaced an earlier one that had burned down; it could accommodate 150 children but closed in the 1960s. The old church, largely rebuilt in 1810, was demolished and replaced by a cross; the new church, All Saints, opened in 1888.
On 1 April 1932, the civil parish of East Stratton was abolished and merged with Micheldever.
