Strefford is a historic hamlet

Hamlet (place)

A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...

 in Shropshire

Shropshire

Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

It lies in the civil parish of Wistanstow

Wistanstow

Wistanstow is a village and parish in Shropshire, England.- Location :Wistanstow is located about 8km south of Church Stretton and 14km north of Ludlow. It is about 2½ km north of Craven Arms. It is just off the main Shrewsbury-Hereford road, the A49...

 and is situated just off the A49 road

A49 road

The A49 is a major road in western England, which traverses the Welsh Marches region. It runs north from Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire via Hereford, Leominster, Ludlow, Shrewsbury and Whitchurch, then continues through central Cheshire to Warrington and Wigan before terminating at its junction with...

 2 miles (3.2 km) north of the small town of Craven Arms

Craven Arms

Craven Arms is a small town and civil parish in Shropshire, England, located on the A49 road and the Welsh Marches railway line, which connect it north and south to the larger towns of Shrewsbury and Ludlow respectively. The Heart of Wales railway line joins the Welsh Marches line at Craven Arms...

. The nearest settlement is Upper Affcot

Upper Affcot

Upper Affcot is a hamlet in Shropshire, England.It is located on the A49 north of Craven Arms and south of Church Stretton, between the hamlets of Strefford and Felhampton. There is a public house here, formerly called the Travellers Rest, now the Affcot Lodge. It is part of the civil parish of...

, to the north on the A49, a hamlet which has a public house

Public house

A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...

. Strefford is at an elevation

Elevation

The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....

 of between 130 metres (426.5 ft) and 135m, and just to the east is Strefford Wood which is at the southern end of Wenlock Edge

Wenlock Edge

Wenlock Edge is a limestone escarpment near Much Wenlock, Shropshire, England. It is long and runs from South West to North East between Craven Arms and Much Wenlock. It is roughly 330 metres high...

; the bridleway that runs along the Edge ends just outside the hamlet.

Strefford was recorded in the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 as 'Straford' and in 1255 as 'Streford'. The name derives from its situation between the Roman road

Roman road

The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...

 (a "Street") at Wistanstow (to the west) and the ford

Ford (crossing)

A ford is a shallow place with good footing where a river or stream may be crossed by wading or in a vehicle. A ford is mostly a natural phenomenon, in contrast to a low water crossing, which is an artificial bridge that allows crossing a river or stream when water is low.The names of many towns...

 immediately to the east of the hamlet, which crosses the Byne or Quinny Brook. The Byne and Quinny Brooks meet just prior to the ford and only a mile after flow into the River Onny

River Onny

The River Onny is a river in Shropshire, England. It is a major tributary of the River Teme.The river has its sources in the Shropshire Hills at White Grit, located in Mid and South-west Shropshire. It has two branches, the East Onny and West Onny, which converge at Eaton, to the east of Lydham...

.

There is a farm shop

Farm shop

A Farm shop is a type of retail outlet which usually sells produce directly from a farm. Some farm shops also resell related goods such as locally produced groceries, foods, drinks and delicatessen products....

 and bed and breakfast

Bed and breakfast

A bed and breakfast is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast, but usually does not offer other meals. Since the 1980s, the meaning of the term has also extended to include accommodations that are also known as "self-catering" establishments...

 at Strefford Hall.

Strefford Conservation Area

Conservation Area (United Kingdom)

In the United Kingdom, the term Conservation Area nearly always applies to an area considered worthy of preservation or enhancement because of its special architectural or historic interest, "the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance," as required by the Planning ...

 covers all the settlement, including the ford. There are five Listed buildings in the hamlet: Ford Cottage, Malt Cottage, The Cottage, the (disused) parish pumphouse

Water well

A water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a trash pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump...

, and Strefford Cottages; in addition there is a Listed milestone

Milestone

A milestone is one of a series of numbered markers placed along a road or boundary at intervals of one mile or occasionally, parts of a mile. They are typically located at the side of the road or in a median. They are alternatively known as mile markers, mileposts or mile posts...

 on the A49 road at Strefford. The village lies within the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an area of countryside considered to have significant landscape value in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, that has been specially designated by the Countryside Agency on behalf of the United Kingdom government; the Countryside Council for Wales on...

designation.