Strete is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

South Hams South Hams is a local government district on the south coast of Devon, England. Services divide between those provided by its own Council headquartered in Totnes, and those provided by Devon County Council headquartered in the city of Exete ...

district of

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

, England, on the coast of

Start Bay Start Bay is a sub-bay of the nautical definition of Lyme Bay in the English Channel in south-east Devon, England. The southernmost of three substantial Devon bays facing east it is between the Mew Stone which sits east of the River Dart's est ...

, within the

South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty The South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) covers 337 square kilometres, including much of the South Hams area of Devon and the rugged coastline from Jennycliff Bay to Elberry Cove near Brixham. The purpose of an Area of Outstandi ...

. The village is about 5 miles south-west of the town of Dartmouth on the A379 road between Dartmouth and

Kingsbridge Kingsbridge is a market town and tourist hub in the South Hams district of Devon, England, with a population of 6,116 at the 2011 census. Two electoral wards bear the name of ''Kingsbridge'' (East & North). Their combined population at the ab ...

, atop the cliffs behind Pilchard Cove at the north end of Slapton Sands, which part of the beach is known locally as Strete Sands. The northern end of the beach has been a

naturist Naturism is a lifestyle of practising non-sexual social nudity in private and in public; the word also refers to the cultural movement which advocates and defends that lifestyle. Both may alternatively be called nudism. Though the two terms a ...

beach for many years. The parish of Strete was created out of the south-eastern part of

Blackawton Blackawton is a village and civil parish in the South Hams district of Devon, England. According to the 2001 census, it had a population of 647. ''Blackawton'' is a major part of the West Dart electoral ward. The ward's population at the 2 ...

parish in 1935. There was a small medieval chapel of ease in the village until 1836 when the present church, dedicated to St Michael, was built on the same site, incorporating the chapel's tower. The population of the parish was 520 in 2001, decreasing to 474 in 2011. Its western boundary is formed, in part, by the Gara Brook which separates it from the parish of Slapton, and it also has boundaries with the parishes of

and Stoke Fleming. The Gara Brook flows into the Higher Ley of

Slapton Ley Slapton Ley is a lake on the south coast of Devon, England, separated from Start Bay by a shingle beach, known as Slapton Sands. Slapton Ley is the largest natural freshwater lake in south-west England being long and has two sections; the Low ...

, part of which is in the parish and at the northern end of which is Strete Gate where there is a small, free and a larger, pay-and-display car park with access to Strete Sands and a woodland walk. The first documentary mention of the place was as ''Streta'' in 1194. In 1244 it was called ''Strete''. The name derives from

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

''Strǣt'', meaning a road or Roman road; the village lies on an ancient trackway. Donn's One-Inch map of 1765 records the village as ''Street'', which it remained until the late 19th century, when it was altered to be spelled ''Strete''. Strete was one of the parishes evacuated in December 1943 as part of

Exercise Tiger Exercise Tiger, or Operation Tiger, was one of a series of large-scale rehearsals for the D-Day invasion of Normandy, which took place in April 1944 on Slapton Sands in Devon. Coordination and communication problems resulted in friendly fire ...

Notes

References

External links

Parish council website
Villages in South Hams {{Devon-geo-stub