Church to Church walk Shipton on Stour to Ilmington- Booking required

Stretton on Fosse is situated on the Warwickshire/ Gloucestershire border and is on the fringe of the Cotswolds. It has a mix of 17th century Cotswold stone farms and houses with later red brick dwellings, just a short distance from the Roman Fosse Way and in fact Stretton means ‘settlement on a Roman road’.

While the lower farming land of the village is heavy clay the upper parts are sand and shingle. During the commercial extraction of sand, important graves of the Roman and Anglo Saxon period were uncovered.

In 1826 the Stratford upon Avon to Moreton in Marsh Tramway, with horse-drawn trucks and carriages, was opened to carry coal and people and it passed close to the village. A part of the dismantled railway track-bed can be seen on the left after crossing the B4035 and along to Longdon Manor.

Coffee at the parish church of St. Peter’s . The church was rebuilt in the decorated style in 1841, although Stretton’s church history dates back to Saxon times and beyond. One unusual feature of the current church is to be found over the porch, it is an octagonal bell-turret, lighted by windows in the gables, and the whole crowned by a small stone spire. The village war memorial is to be found on the left at the entrance to the churchyard.

Notable properties in the village are the 17th century Rectory, which has a fine Tuscan Porch, The Court House which is next to the church and the Old School building (now under private ownership). A new village hall was built in 1990 to replace the post-war wooden hut and car parking is available for visitors. Foxcote House is an 18th century detached country house and it has been a Grade 2 Listed Building since September 1952. The front of Foxcote House contains large gardens. The house was constructed circa 1740, and its design has been attributed to Edward Woodward. It was the traditional family seat of the Canning Family; ten generations of the Canning family resided at the house until the death of Robert Canning in 1848. Following his death, Foxcote House was occupied by a private school, before its eventual purchase in the 1960’s by Christopher Boot Holman, an heir of the pharmaceutical retail company Boots the Chemist. The Holmans restored the house and it was sold by them in 1997 to the American lingerie billionaire Lex Wexner. The Wexners attend the annual shooting season each October and host traditional British shooting parties on the extensive estate. Hopefully not while we are there…

If the weather is good we will have lunch en route, else we will have a late lunch at the church at Ilmington at the end.

Ilmington is one of the ‘picture postcard villages’ of Warwickshire. It has many of the houses built with the local honey-coloured ironstone and mullion windows, lanes leading nowhere, small brooks meandering, and a backcloth of the soft undulating Cotswolds. In fact it is at the northernmost tip of the Cotswolds and is an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. High up on Ilmington Downs is the highest point in Warwickshire from where there are excellent views over to Meon Hill, well known in the area for its association with witchcraft.

The early name for the village was Elmington because it had so many Elm trees. When the Dutch Elm disease came to England, it killed all the trees and now none remain in the village.

Ilmington is known for the many footpaths that criss-cross the village, particularly around the ancient fish ponds (now conservation) in the centre, and for the remnants of historic, multi-variety apple orchards.

The parish church of St. Mary’s on Back Street is a fine Norman church and dates from about the early part of the 11th century, and boasts one of the finest bell-towers in Warwickshire. The church is unusual in the fact that it cannot be directly accessed by road, but instead by a network of narrow footpaths.

The interior of St. Mary’s Church is full of interest. Robert (Mousey) Thompson of Kilburn carved the pulpit and all the pews for the church. He also carved his signature mice in eleven places throughout the church, and they are there for visitors to try and find.

Another interesting thing in the church is the Ilmington Apple Map. June Hobson was a gardener and artist who lived in the village. She inspired the villagers to embroider the map that is a copy of old maps which showed where all of the orchards in the village were. It shows that there were an unusually large number of small orchards in the village and the map is on display within the church.

There is also a short Apple Walk around the village which was devised by the children from the local school. There are two more former places of worship in Ilmington.

At the end of Ballards Lane there is the former Ilmington Wesleyan Methodist Chapel building.

On Upper Green is the former St. Philip’s Roman Catholic Church, but is now the home of the Ilmington Community Shop and Café. This is a beautiful building and has an iconic status within the village. It was built and endowed in 1867 as a school for Catholic children by Philip Howard, who was the husband of the heiress Elizabeth Canning, whose family were Lords of the Manor and lived at Foxcote House. The adjoining house was built for the schoolmaster, but by 1931 out of a total of 23 pupils only 3 were Catholic and the school closed. When Philip Howard died three years later it was decided to convert the former school into a church. It was opened by Archbishop Thomas Leighton Williams in 1935. The neighbouring schoolhouse became the Presbytery. The church closed in July 2013 and the building was purchased by the Village Cooperative in early 2015, thereby ensuring the building will remain in community use for future generations. With the closure of the village shop in 2012, it was decided to use the building for the Ilmington Community Shop and Café.

Another building to be found at Upper Green is the Village Hall, which is on the corner of Foxcote Hill and Front Street. It was originally built in 1933 on land given to the village by Major Spencer Flower, and was extended through a Millenium Project in 2000. This is the centre of an array of community activities and groups.

Also at Upper Green, are the remains of the Chalybeate Spring, and for a while the village had a reputation as a spa. The village war memorial is to be found on Grump Street, at Upper Green.

Ilmington has its own Church of England Primary School on Back Lane.