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Stanford in the Vale, Berkshire

Historical Description

Stanford-in-the Vale, a village and a parish in Berks. The village stands in the White Horse Vale, 2½ miles NNW of Challow station and 3 NE from Uffington Junction on the G.W.R., and 3¼ ESE of Faringdon. It was once a market-town, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Faringdon. The parish includes Goosey chapelry, which is noticed separately, and comprises 3895 acres; population of the civil parish, 894; of the ecclesiastical, with Goosey, 1054. There is a parish council consisting of seven members. The manor belongs to the Richards family. Stanford Place is a chief residence, and the Manor House is an old mansion which was erected in 1618. There are stone pits in the neighbourhood, from which a soft stone suitable for road metal is quarried, and in which many fossils are found. The living is a vicarage, with Goosey annexed, in the diocese of Oxford; joint gross value, £376 with residence. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Westminster. The church is a building of stone in the Early English,. Decorated, and Perpendicular styles, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, S porch, and a good Early English western tower 80 feet high. It has some good stained windows and some interesting tombs and memorials. There are Congregational and Primitive Methodist chapels.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Ancient CountyBerkshire 
Ecclesiastical parishStanford-In-The-Vale St. Denis 
HundredOck 
Poor Law unionFarringdon 

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.


Church Records

The register dates from the year 1558.


Churches

Church of England

St. Denis (parish church)

The church of St. Denis is a building of stone, furnishing good examples of the Early English and Decorated styles, and consists of chancel, nave of four bays, aisles, south porch and a fine Early English western tower with additions in the Perpendicular style, 80 feet high, containing 6 bells and a clock; the church was built about 1200, but so much altered and added to about 1350 as to be nearly rebuilt; in 1851 £500 was spent in its repair and restoration, and during the period 1883-5 the church was further restored at a cost of £620: the chancel, 40 feet in height, is Decorated; the windows relieved by geometrical tracery, contain some original glass; it has a plain open-timbered roof, a curiously fine piscina with semi-octagonal tabernacle above and a small oblong opening to it, probably a reliquary, and on the north side a double locker; in the centre of the chancel is a large brass with demi-effigy to Roger Campdene, priest, 1398; a hagioseope and, stairs to the rood loft also remain: the nave has three wide arches on the north side, on octagonal piers without caps: beneath the aisle roof are the original Early English clerestory windows, now blocked: the south door and porch are of the same date: there is a Decorated vestry: the oaken font, with canopy and pulpit, are Elizabethan: six of the windows are stained: in the nave is a mural monument, restored in 1840, to Captain Francis Knollys, commandant of the trained bands of the Abingdon Division, ob. 4th August, 1640, and in the chancel, a memorial to John Heigham esq. Marshal of the Hall to James I. and Charles I. and son of John Heigham esq. of Giffords, Suffolk, ob. 20th May, 1632; there is also an inscribed tablet to the Rev. George Henry Proctor M.A. 4 years curate of this parish, who died at Scutari, near Constantinople, 10th March, 1856: in the churchyard is a coffin slab of the 13th century, and many tombstones to the Whitefield family: there are 400 sittings.

Congregational

Congregational Chapel

There is a small Congregational chapel.

Methodist

Primitive Methodist Chapel

There is a small Primitive Methodist chapel.


Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.

Stanford in the Vale was in Faringdon Registration District from 1837 to 1937 and Wantage Registration District from 1937 to 1974


Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Stanford in the Vale from the following:


Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Berkshire is available to browse.


Maps

Online maps of Stanford in the Vale are available from a number of sites:


Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Berkshire papers online:


Visitations Heraldic

The Visitations of Berkshire 1532, 1566, and 1665-6 is available online.

DistrictVale of White Horse
CountyOxfordshire
RegionSouth East
CountryEngland
Postal districtSN7
Post TownFaringdon

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