A village above two valleys
Stramshall
A small Staffordshire village with a former inn turned tea room, a richly detailed sandstone church, shared green spaces and a nearby nature reserve.
- Best for
- Church detail, tea-room stops and quiet outdoor time
- Village character
- Residential, historic and closely tied to nearby Uttoxeter
- Don't miss
- The church font, east window and Titanic connection
The Fox verdict
A compact village visit with unusually deep stories
Stramshall suits visitors who enjoy a tea-room pause, close-looking in a historic church and modest community spaces rather than a conventional attraction circuit.
The Olive Tree carries the memory of the Hare & Hounds, St Michael and All Angels connects carved stone and stained glass with a Titanic survivor, and the village green, playing field and nearby Tean Valley Meadow give a visit its outdoor rhythm.
Your picks, your pace
Make Stramshall yours
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Local signatures
3 placesSt Michael and All Angels
A Grade II sandstone church built in 1850–52, with an octagonal font, dog-tooth moulded pulpit and an east window showing Christ in Majesty and St Michael slaying the dragon.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 45 minutes
- Locality
- St Michael's Road, Stramshall
- Access
- Open for worship; check the church page for current visitor access before travel.
Stramshall Playing Field
A community playing field with swings, slide, climbing frame and a junior football pitch.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 60 minutes
- Locality
- Creighton Lane, Stramshall
Stramshall Village Green
A community green whose old red telephone box has been repurposed as a micro-library.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 20 minutes
- Locality
- Vicarage Drive, Stramshall
Food & drink
1 placeThe Olive Tree Guest House & Tearoom
A countryside guest house and tearoom in the former Hare & Hounds, offering refreshments, homemade cakes and bed-and-breakfast accommodation.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 75 minutes
- Locality
- High Street, Stramshall
- Access
- This is a guest house and tearoom rather than a conventional pub; check the current visitor listing before travel.
Walks & outdoors
1 placeTean Valley Meadow
A nature reserve close to Stramshall, adding a meadow stop to the village's views over the Tean and Dove valleys.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 90 minutes
- Locality
- Near Stramshall
- Access
- Check the official listing for current access information before travel.
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On the map
Stramshall at a glance
Tap a marker to jump to its guide card.
Three ways to explore Stramshall
Signature outings
Homemade food at the Olive Tree
Settle in for homemade lunchtime food or cake in the former Hare & Hounds, where the building's hospitality story reaches back to the nineteenth century.
Font, pulpit and dragon window
Look closely at the trefoil arcading around the octagonal font, the pulpit's dog-tooth moulding and St Michael in the east window.
A quieter outdoor interval
Pair the hilltop village and its Tean and Dove valley outlook with time at the nearby Tean Valley Meadow nature reserve.
The village story
Stramshall Village Guide
A former pub, a sandstone church and a small village's long memory above the Tean and Dove valleys.
The inn that changed its name
The pub on the High Street doesn't call itself a pub anymore. The Olive Tree is a bed and breakfast with tea rooms, in a building that's been serving food and drink here since at least 1890, when landlord Thomas Griffin ran it as the Hare & Hounds and made farm workers' boots on the side with his son — a trade that outlasted the century's turn and carried on until 1950.
It closed as a pub in the late 1990s, spent time as a private house, reopened in 2008, closed again in 2018, and was bought in 2017 by Rebecca and David, who'd relocated from Spain and reopened it as the Olive Tree guest house and tea rooms, with new en-suite bathrooms. There's a full English with free-range eggs, homemade lunchtime food, and cakes in the tea room. Dogs are welcome in the garden and bar. There's no real ale — draught lager only, since the place is licensed as a restaurant rather than a pub — but live music plays every third Friday, and there's a quiz on the first. "What a wonderful find," wrote one guest, Beverly Padgham. "The hosts made us feel very welcome."
A village of shared spaces
Beyond the Olive Tree, Stramshall doesn't have shops. It's a residential village that leans on Uttoxeter, two to two and a half miles away, for its butchers, its pharmacy, its racecourse, and its railway station.
What it does have is a village hall on Vicarage Drive, built in 1979, running Pilates, Zumba Gold, Short Mat Bowls, Beavers, Cubs and Scouts, with an outdoor defibrillator on the wall. There's a playing field on Creighton Lane with swings and a junior football pitch, and allotments on the High Street with a waiting list.
Greens, paths and valley views
Stramshall Village Green, also on Vicarage Drive, has a micro-library housed in an old red telephone box. Spath Village Green is the other one, on Stramshall Road. Stramshall Football Club, founded in 2005, plays in yellow shirts with black sleeves, and holds an annual Lads vs Dads match to raise money for the pitch.
The village sits on a hill above the Tean and Dove valleys, with the Tean Valley Meadow nature reserve close by. There's no single named trail through the village itself, but footpaths connect out into the wider East Staffordshire network toward Bramshall and Uttoxeter.
Stone, glass and a Titanic story
St Michael and All Angels, on St Michael's Road, was built in 1850–52 by Thomas Fradgley of Uttoxeter, in sandstone, with an octagonal font ringed in trefoil arcading and a hexagonal pulpit cut with dog-tooth moulding. The east window shows Christ in Majesty and St Michael slaying the dragon. One vicar, Rev. Charles Frederick Lowry Barnwell, held the post for 54 years, from 1853 to 1933.
Julia Cavendish worshipped there after surviving the Titanic. Her husband, Tyrell, of Crakemarsh Hall next door, did not; his body was recovered by the cable ship Mackay-Bennett. The hall itself is gone now — demolished in 1998 after a fire, with only the North Lodge gatehouse and the old stables still standing. JCB's founder, Joseph Bamford, rented premises there in 1948 before moving to Rocester.
From Domesday to Friday night
Stramshall turns up in the Domesday Book as Stagrigesholle, seven households under a lord named Alric, valued at five shillings a year.
Uttoxeter station is about two miles off, and the First bus route 32 runs from the village through Uttoxeter to Stoke-on-Trent. On a Friday night, though, most of the village is at the Olive Tree, for the quiz or the music, in a room where the beer is only lager and nobody seems to mind.
Stay around Alton Towers
Make a longer stay of it
Travel Fox holiday homes around Alton Towers, linked directly to their property pages.
Oakamoor
Christina's House
- Sleeps 4
- 2 bedrooms
Alton
Angel Cottage - 5 mins drive to Alton Towers!
- Sleeps 10
- 4 bedrooms
Alton
Smithy Bank Cottage - with free parking!
- Sleeps 8
- 3 bedrooms
Alton
The Old Post Office: Alton Towers
- Sleeps 8
- 3 bedrooms
Croxden
Zoe's Cottage - 7 mins drive to Alton + Alpacas!
- Sleeps 6
- 2 bedrooms
A guide with a point of view
Written from research. Edited for real journeys.
Use the Official site links for live practical details, then use this guide for context, ideas and room to explore.
Sources
Every place on this page is checked against a published source. Each entry links the record we used and names who publishes it.
- The Olive Tree Guest House & Tearoom — discovereaststaffordshire.com operator, sector body or destination organisation
- St Michael and All Angels — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Stramshall Playing Field — uttoxeterruralparishcouncil.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Stramshall Village Green — uttoxeterruralparishcouncil.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Tean Valley Meadow — uttoxeterruralparishcouncil.gov.uk statutory register or public authority