Our first Stratford Reunion, efficiently arranged by Sheila Duncombe, took place 2 – 4 September 2002. Ten cousins and seven spouses met up in the village of Guiting Power, where we would be staying for the two nights.
Robert Stratford, who died in 1315, was one of the original Burgesses of Stratford upon Avon, and he had four very eminent sons: John who was Archbishop of Canterbury, dying in 1348; Robert who was Chancellor of England in 1331-4 then Bishop of Chichester in1337; Henry who was Commissioner for Trade in1320 and Thomas who was Dean of Gloucester Cathedral. Our forbear was Stephen who inherited the Lordship of Guiting Power from his brother Robert.
It was therefore fitting that we began our gathering there, where there is a Stratford memorial in the church by the altar. It was fortunate that Gerald our “Patriarch” was able to be with us to take us around the various houses and explain the history. All cousins share John Stratford and Christine Howell as Gt. Grandparents, he dying in 1553. He was known as the Lord of the Manors of Farmcote, Hawling, Guiting Power, Temple Guiting, Sudeley, Wyck Rissington, Lower Swell, Cold Aston and Aston Blank.
We then went to Hawling where many Stratford plaques are in the church and some gravestones show Arms etc. The adjacent Manor House was in the family and in 1484 the Arms were displayed. We then had a tour by the owners’ parents’-in-law of the Manor House at Farmcote, this having been in the family for many years. It is in a very commanding position and close by is the St. Faith’s chapel where there are stone effigies and the family vault is home to many of our forbears.
The following day took us past the Manor House at Temple Guiting where the ancestor of six of us had resided c.1579. We then made our way to Stanway House where Lord Neidpath had kindly agreed for us to look around. This had been the birthplace of Margaret Tracy who was a maternal grandparent of Gerald.
We then travelled to Barton on the Heath where William Stratford, the son of William the Gt x 3 Grandson of John and Margaret (née Tracy) Stratford married Ann Overbury of the Manor House in 1665. We were most fortunate that the present owner kindly showed us round the property. For lunch we went to Wyck Hill House Hotel, the original building being built as a wedding present by the said William Stratford for his daughter Ann Overbury Stratford. The Overbury name is familiar as it was Sir Thomas Overbury who was the last man to be put to death in the Tower!
Our return journey to Guiting took us to Upper Swell where from the churchyard we saw the Manor House, which had been occupied by our forbears during the early 16th century. Then it was on to Condicote where another Great x 3 Grandson of John and Margaret Stratford, George, the brother of William, had lived in the Manor House and was buried in the Chancel of the church in September 1720.
The last day saw us visiting Hailes Abbey. John Stratford had been one of Thomas Cromwell’s Commissioners at its dissolution in 1539, along with Richard Tracy. The Tracy family actually lived in the Abbot’s house around 1712. George, the Gt. Grandson of John and Margaret Stratford, in 1601 had married, at Didbrook, Elizabeth Hoby, daughter of Sir William Hoby. We then visited Didbrook church where the Stratford’s, Royalists of course, had taken refuge after the Battle of Edge Hill at the beginning of the Civil War, and where many of the family are buried.
Our last place to see was the Manor House at Prescott that had been owned by John Stratford, George’s uncle, who in 1619 was responsible for growing tobacco all around Winchcombe and Bishop’s Cleeve. It was a fitting climax to a marvellous time that we had to go up the hill climb to reach the house! So it was that eight medium sized saloon cars were seen to ‘roar’ up, whiz round the hairpin bends and ‘roar down’ just in time for normal racing to resume!