Qualla: Stratton

Stratton: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Philip Halling, CC BY-SA 2.0. On the morning of the 16th of May 1643, two thousand four hundred Cornish Royalist infantry climbed the slopes of Stamford Hill above Stratton, marching uphill into a Parliamentarian force more than twice their size and dug into the heights. They had no business winning. The Earl of Stamford had five thousand four hundred foot, fifteen hundred horse, the better ground, the better artillery. The Royalists, under Sir Ralph Hopton with Sir Bevil Grenville leading from the front, advanced anyway, on four converging columns up four sides of the hill. By the end of the day Hopton had destroyed the entire Parliamentarian field army of the South West. Three hundred of Stamford's men lay dead. Seventeen hundred had surrendered. The Royalists lost about ninety. Stamford Hill still rises above Stratton today, marked, scarred, listed as a registered battlefield, looking exactly like the kind of place where a smaller army should never have won.

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Image: Philip Halling | CC BY-SA 2.0

Stratton: Strad-Neth

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Philip Halling, CC BY-SA 2.0. The name Stratton is older than the battle by something close to a millennium. It comes from the Cornish Strad-Neth — strad meaning the flat-bottomed valley of a river, Neth being the river itself. The same root produced Neath in South Wales and the Nidd in northern England, all ...

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Image: Philip Halling | CC BY-SA 2.0

Stratton: Head of the Hundred

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Z thomas, CC BY 3.0. Cornwall in Saxon times had only nine hundreds — administrative districts for collecting taxes and dispensing justice — and Stratton was the head of its own. The Stratton Hundred covered Kilkhampton, Marhamchurch, Boyton, Jacobstow, Whitstone, Stratton itself, Poughill, Bridgerul...

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Image: Z thomas | CC BY 3.0

Stratton: The Twelfth-Century Church

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Humphrey Bolton, CC BY-SA 2.0. St Andrew's itself was built in the twelfth century — Norman work, raised on the high ground in the centre of the town. It is Grade I listed today. Inside is a brass memorial to Admiral Sir John Arundell of Trerice, dated 1561, one of the great Cornish admirals of the Tudor perio...

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Image: Humphrey Bolton | CC BY-SA 2.0

Stratton: Eclipse by Bude

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Philip Halling, CC BY-SA 2.0. Stratton was, until well into the nineteenth century, the more important town. Bude, a mile and a half down the road, was a small fishing harbour. In 1844, Stratton had six shoemakers; Bude had one. By 1900 the relative positions had inverted completely. The Bude Canal had opened...

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Image: Philip Halling | CC BY-SA 2.0

Stratton: Stamford Hill

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Humphrey Bolton, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Battle of Stratton is what most people now come here to learn about, if they come at all. Hopton's Royalist army marched up from Launceston on the night of the 15th of May, encamped on the lower slopes, and at five in the morning advanced in four columns toward the Parliament...

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Image: Humphrey Bolton | CC BY-SA 2.0