Stretton en le Field is a small village and civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England, about 7 miles/11 km south-west of Ashby de la Zouch, historically an exclave of Derbyshire. According to the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 36. At the 2011 census the population remained under 100 and so was included in the civil parish of Chilcote. Stretton Bridge carries the A444 road across the River Mease, which forms the northern parish boundary. It is among the Thankful Villages, suffering no Great War fatalities in 1914–1918: eleven men went from the village to fight and all returned. History Roman origins The name Stretton-en-le-Field is explained as a settlement ton/tun, lying in open country field/feld, by a Roman road stret/straet; with the influence of French on English history following the Norman Conquest having a clear impact on the village's current name. Of the seventeen Strettons in England, all but two are situated on Roman Roads. However, the Roman road from which the village gains its name has not yet been positively identified. Evidence supports that both the A444 (Nuneaton–Burton Upon Trent) and the Tamworth Road (formerly the A453; Tamworth–Ashby de la Zouch) were used by the Romans. Although the A444 passes closest to the village, the straightness of Tamworth Road suggest it was the straet from which the village gained its name. Remains of two Roman buildings have been found on the boundary between Stretton and neighbouring Appleby Magna. Archaeological excavations in advance of building a hotel at the M42/A444 junction revealed the remains of a 4th-century farm. Roman coins were found on the site from the reigns of Emperor Constantine I (307–337) and Emperor Magnentius (350–353), along with 4th-century pottery and roof-tiles. The farm buildings included a corn-drying oven, sunken buildings containing chaff from threshing and fragments of quern-stones. Other finds include a corroded iron knife-blade, copper alloy pins, an iron hobnail, and bones of cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs, cats and other animals. The site was destroyed by the construction of the Appleby Park Hotel; the hotel itself is now to be demolished to make way for the HS2 railway between Birmingham and Sheffield. The farm is thought to have sat adjacent to a Roman Villa; The Old Rectory, also in Appleby Magna, is thought to have been built on these remains. The adjacent Rectory Lane was previously known as The