Stratton-on-the-Fosse is situated on the edge of the Mendip Hills in Somerset straddling the ancient Roman road, the Fosse Way, now the A367, between Bath and Wells, or more locally, Radstock and Shepton Mallet.

The village is dominated by the fine neo-Gothic abbey church of St Gregory The Great, Downside with its166ft (55m) square "Somerset" tower, the large bell of which, known as "Great Bede", daily proclaims services and the Angelus.

The Fosse Way is a constant reminder of the village's Roman heritage although the legacy of a fast, straight road led to the need to calm its speeding traffic. Stratton was the first village in the Country to have traffic calming measures installed so it is an interesting coincidence that their "pinch point" design is the same principle used by the Romans to slow speeding chariots when stones placed close together forced them to take great care in negotiating very narrow gaps.

The parish has a population of about 1200 and is largely a rural agricultural landscape. There are two prominent landowners, the Duchy of Cornwall and Downside. Downside School, an independent boys boarding school run by the Benedictine community of Downside Abbey, occupies most of the area north of the Fosse Way with its large buildings and extensive playing fields.

The parish church of St Vigor is of Norman origin and one of only two churches in the country under the patronage of this saint. It is therefore an extraordinary coincidence that St Vigor was a pupil of St Vedast who was a forbear of the present Benedictine community of Downside who only arrived in Stratton in the 18th Century.

The full history of the village can be viewed here