[1]  From the front of the Community Centre, facing the the green, turn right and cross over Acacia Grove.  Keep walking ahead, up a slight incline and turn right at the next road (Chestnut Avenue).  Walk on the right side pavement until you pass Willows Avenue on your left, then cross over before you reach Oak Tree Avenue. Continue on the left-hand pavement to the end of the road.  The main road before you is Cricklade Road.  Turn left and walk towards the double roundabout sign (Moonrakers Roundabout) and a pedestrian crossing.  You will pass a number of shops and a post box before reaching the crossing.  Cross over, when safe to do so, and continue left towards the roundabout.  You will cross over an entrance road, with houses to your right, ending at 512 Cricklade Road.

(A)  Across the roundabout, you will see “The Moonrakers” public house.  This establishment takes its name from Wiltshire folklore, dating back to some time in the early to mid 1700′s, when smuggling was part of rural English life.  Smugglers routes passed through Wiltshire, as goods were transported from the south coast to customers in central England.  According to folklore, locals had hidden barrels of contraband French Brandy from Customs Officers in a village pond (the location of which is contested by many Wiltshire towns and villages).  As they tried to retrieve their barrels on a moonlit night, Customs Officers arrived and challenged the locals.  As they were using rakes to hook the barrels, the quick-thinking locals began raking at the reflection of the moon in the pond, claiming they were trying to rake in a round cheese.  Thinking the locals were drunk, or just plain daft, the Customs Officers rode away laughing.  The last laugh was with the locals, however, who then fished out the Brandy barrels and made their way home.  

[2]  Walk round to your right, in the direction of “Upper Stratton Crematorium, Highworth B4006″.  As you walk around the corner, there are large advertisement hoardings and a sign for Stratton St Margaret. Caution: the pavement here is quite uneven and narrow.  Walk up the road towards “Swindon Cycles”.

(B)  Stratton derives its name from the Latin word “strata” (a paved way or street), after the old Roman road which goes through the Stratton parish.  In the Domesday Survey of 1086, the name is shown as Stratone, when the parish was in the possession of Nigel, the physician of William the Conqueror.  The village of Stratton St Margaret consisted of three hamlets – The Street, the area around Green Road and Dores Road (including the few houses at Kingsdown) and Stratton Green, mainly around Tilleys Lane.

(C)  The tall, dated building next to “Swindon Cycles” is “Boundary House”.  Built around 1894, and modelled on the owner’s house in Bayswater, this property was built on the site of “Boundary Cottage”, which stood there beforehand.  This original cottage marked the boundary of Highworth parish, and was the very last house that local dues and rates were payable to Highworth, not Swindon.  Prior to the railways, Highworth was a larger town than Swindon.  

[3]  When you reach the next road, turn right into it (Dores Road) and walk along the road past the bus stop.  Note that the houses to your right for the first part of the road are all architecturally different.  The pretty pink 4 Dores Road, with half-slated and half-pink fascia and then, a little later, a house covered in Ivy. You will walk past The Wheatsheaf pub, set back between two small road entrances in front of it, one of which is named as Hermitage Lane (the first is the rear access to the pub).  Follow the road as it bends round to the left, over the entrance to Dores Court, past the bus stop and green fenced sub station, towards Stratton Education Centre (a large, old red-bricked school building).

[4]  Turn right into Green Road and continue along the right pavement.  You will see lovely examples of house on the left side of the road immediately as you turn the corner  and then later on a white-painted, thatched house (19 Green Road).  Walk over Old Dairy Close, past a school sign and continue down the road passing The Limes Resource Centre on your left (the right-hand part of the centre is 21 Green Road).  The pavement is quite narrow outside the well-kept Stratton St Margaret Cemetary. Do notice the lovely Upper Stratton Baptist Church opposite you.  Continue along the road past another white-painted, thatched house (41 Green Road) on your left, over Greenlands Road and Wise Close until you reach Wheeler Avenue.

(D)   19 Green Road is a 17th century Grade II listed building, which was once a dame school.  Dame schools were an early form of a private elementary school, some providing no more than child care while others taught reading, writing and other useful skills, such as sewing.  They were usually taught by elderly women, hence “dame”.  Dame schools became less common in Britain after the introduction of compulsory education in 1870.

(E)  21 Green Road is a Grade II listed building, possibly 18th century but altered, surviving from the time this area was a hamlet outside Swindon.

(F)   In 1860, Henry Tucker Esq. of Bourton House, Berkshire, became the owner of a large part of Upper Stratton village. To this point, there was only a small, primitive church and no school in the village.  Henry Tucker decided to take action, and made plans to build a Chapel to serve the community as a Day School and Free Church. The foundation stone of what was to become Upper Stratton Baptist Church was laid in 1861 and the Church began life in 1862.

(G)  41 Green Road is a Grade II listed building, probably dating from the early 18th century.

[5]  Turn right into Wheeler Avenue, and then first right into Headlands Grove.  Walk the length of Headlands Grove, past the Greenlands Bus Stop and over the entrance to the trading estate.  At some point (when it is safe to do so) cross over the road.  At the end of Headlands Grove, turn left onto Cricklade Road, and cross over Cricklade Road using the pedestrian crossing.

[6]  Continue to the left, along a slightly downhill stretch of Cricklade Road, then take the first right turning, into Liddington Street.  Walk down Liddington Street on the right-hand pavement, over Bedwyn Close, following the footpath for it’s entire length, passing Pinehurst Gospel Hall on your right, until you reach The Circle again.  Turn left and continue ahead, crossing over Acacia Grove once more, to return to Pinetrees Community Centre.