(A) Stretton probably derives its name from being a town on a street. The street being the nearby Roman Road, the Fosse Way. Being near the junction of two major coaching roads, there were at least 10 pubs in the village serving travellers at one time, but you will have to make do with just two now! The village is famous for its links with Joseph Elkington, who was baptised here. Joseph invented land drainage by drilling bore holes, a technique that brought huge amounts of useless boggy ground into productive agricultural use, and was a massive benefit to the economy. Look out for an information board about him at the bottom of Church Hill, which explains how his idea worked.
The village church was built in 1835 and replaced an older Norman one which was considered to be too small and in a poor state of repair.
[1] From the telephone box on the village green, go up Church Hill, noting the information board about Joseph Elkington mounted on the village hall on your left. Turn left through a gate into the churchyard, then right up a path starting opposite the tower door up to a gate leading onto the road. Joseph Elkington's memorial is on your right as you pass through the churchyard. It is the large one with a stone vase on top. Feel free to take a closer look. He was buried in Madeley, Staffordshire, so this is a memorial rather than a grave.
Turn left along the road and right around the bend to find a kissing gate on the right. Go ahead between fences to the large steel vats. Pass to the left of them and continue ahead to the far hedge. Turn left along this to find a kissing gate on the right. Go through and follow the right edge of the next field to a gap with a stile. Cross the stile and go right along a path that meanders between fences then through allotments, to a road. Go through a gate opposite and continue between fences to another road. Turn right to the A45.
Take care crossing the A45. If the road is busy, be patient and wait for a gap in the traffic. Cross the first carriage way to the end of the crash barrier, then zig zag between the barriers to cross the second carriage way to the large gate opposite.
Cross the stile to the left of the gate. Knightlow Cross is just to your left. It is the mound with a stone on top. Most of the cross has gone.
(B) Knightlow Cross. This is the site of Britain's oldest known continual annual ceremony, the WrothSilver ceremony, which has been going on here since at least 1170. Representatives of the 25 parishes in the area have to pay next year's rent to the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry by sunrise on Martinmas Eve, which is the 11th November, or 10th if the 11th is a Sunday. At about 6.30 am the Duke's Agent arrives at the cross. The Lord Mayor of Rugby also turns up in full regalia. The parish representatives then throw their rents, which average about 11 pence in modern money, into the hole in the stone. Those who fail to pay have to give the Duke a white bull with a red nose and ears as a forfeit. As such bulls surely cost more than 11 pence these days, it is well worth turning up and paying, and nobody has missed a payment since the 1890s. Afterwards, they all decamp to a nearby pub for a big breakfast that includes a glass of milk and rum, which is used to toast the Duke.
[2] Cross the stile on the right and go ahead following the hedge on the right. When it ends, carry straight on to the right end of a hedge ahead. There are good distant views of Coventry to your left. The three beautiful medieval spires are now accompanied by more modern tower blocks and an incinerator chimney. Continue in the same direction across the middle of a large field to a stile in the far hedge just at the top of where the slope starts to go steeply downhill to the left. Go half left to the next stile then left of a long since disused quarry to another stile. Go half right, and ahead to stile by a large gate on the right that leads to a road.Turn left, then right at the end to the centre of Wolston.
(C) Wolston is a large, and ever growing village, with lots of new housing. There is a nice spot to rest on some benches by the brook on the left. You could get an ice cream from the Co-op and eat it there. Or there is a pub just beyond. Take a look at the village information board, and look at the Millenium memorial made from an old local millstone. Buses go back to Coventry and Rugby from here.
[3] Carry straight on past the Co-op on your right and turn right up Dyer's Lane opposite the Baptist Church. Pass a tiny cemetery on the right then a much larger one on the left, to a kissing gate on the left. Go through and half right uphill to a gate in the top corner. Follow the right edge of the next field to a double telegraph pole. Go through the gap in the hedge and continue in the same direction, now with the hedge on your left, to a road, which is the Fosse Way.
(D) The Fosse Way is one of England's major Roman roads, running from Exeter to Lincoln. For a while, it formed the western boundary of Roman rule in England. The word Fosse comes from the Latin Fossa, meaning a ditch, and was probably first used to describe the road in the dark ages, after the Romans left. It is probably a reference to the drainage ditches which ran along each side of Roman roads, which were much better engineered than all other roads at the time.
Cross the Fosse Way carefully, it is a fast road.
[4] Cross a stile on the far side of the Fosse Way and go slightly right of straight on to a stile in the far hedge. Go ahead across the next large field to a stile just right of the far left corner.(Some OS maps still show some long since disappeared hedges that used to divide up this field.) Continue along the left edge of this next field to a gate leading onto a road. Turn right along the road to a bridleway on the right opposite the drive to Heath Farm.
[5] Turn right down the Bridleway for 20 yards to a waymark post. Here, leave the Bridlway and turn sharp left on a footpath going across the field to a gate. Cross the next small field then go ahead along the left edge of three more fields heading towards farm buildings ahead. In the fourth field go uphill towards the barns, but before reaching them turn right, with a large fenced off slurry pit on your right to a hedge corner. Turn sharp left here and continue with the hedge on your right, past lots of old derelict machinery, to a gate in the corner. Turn right through this gate and follow the left hedge to a gate and stile in it next to a pond. Go downhill to the bottom left corner of the next field. Cross the bridge and turn right along the clear path that follows the stream for a while before meandering through trees to arrive at a rather beautiful pond. Turn right and head uphill along the right edge of the field towards the noise of the A45. Half way up the field cross through the hedge to the other side and continue up to the A45 at a layby.
Again, take care and be patient crossing the A45. Go to the left half of the layby, so any traffic turning into it can see you. Cross to the zig zags in the crash barriers in the middle and go to the gate slightly to the left after crossing the second carriage way, which has blue paint on the wooden posts, and bridleway signs.
[6] Cross the stile by the gate and go ahead along the track with the hedge on your left. Just past the farm turn right along a good track. (Older OS maps show the bridleway turning right just before the farm, but it now goes along the track.) The track is clear and easy to follow for a while until it peters out in a field corner. Here, turn left for 10 yards then right through a bridlegate by a pond. Go ahead between hedges to a road. Turn right, pass houses and a barn, and take a stile on the left at a right hand bend. Follow the path between a wire fence on the left and a hedge on the right to a stile and plank bridge in the far right corner. Cross them and go left along the field edge. Just past the corner of the field a stile on the left leads to a sunken track which goes between back gardens and playing fields to the Fosse Way at a mini roundabout. (If the track is overgrown, go up the bank on the left and walk through the playing fields.) Cross straight over and walk down Brookside all the way back to Stretton village green.