Stratton derives its name from the Latin strata ("paved way" or "street") after the former Roman road whose course traverses the parish from northwest to southeast.

[6] The exception is a residential area in the south of the parish, around Colebrook Junior School and close to Nythe, which is in Covingham and Dorcan ward.

[7] St Margaret's parish church is from the late 13th century, although an earlier Norman doorway has been repositioned at the north entrance.

The north wall of the nave has an early 14th century tomb recess under ogee arches, the carving called "vigorously crude" by Orbach.

The west tower – low, plain and unbuttressed – is from the 13th or 14th century and was partly rebuilt in 1845–1846 during restoration of the church by Anthony Salvin.

[9] In 1949 the chapel at the east end of the south aisle was refurbished as a war memorial and dedicated to St Catherine of Alexandria.

[11] Monuments inside the church include one in marble and alabaster, made around 1670 in memory of Catherine Hedges (died 1649) and attributed to the London sculptor Joshua Marshall.

[10][12] One chest tomb in the churchyard is Grade II listed: that of Susanah Nicholas Van Acker[13] (died in childbirth, 1683) and her husband William Hedges (1632–1701), a merchant who was appointed by the East India Company as governor of Bengal from 1681 to 1683; in later life he was an alderman of London and a director of the Bank of England.

[8] This building replaced a Primitive Methodist chapel at Lower Stratton, erected in 1830, enlarged in 1856, then turned into a pair of dwellings.

Early in the Second World War a shadow aircraft factory was built on land straddling the boundary with South Marston parish, at first producing the Miles Master trainer, and later assembling Short Stirling bombers and building some Spitfires.

[24] In that year the site was sold to Panattoni, an American industrial real estate developer, who intended to use it for a large-scale logistics operation.