Stanford Dingley, Berkshire
Historical Description
Stanford Dingley, a village and a parish in Berks, 4¼ miles NNW of Aldermaston station on the G.W.R., and 9 W by S of Reading, with a post office under Reading; money order and telegraph office, Bradfield. Acreage, 965; population, 144. The manor belongs to the Hartley family. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £176 with residence. The church is an ancient and interesting building of flint and rubble of the Transition Norman period, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, S porch, and a belfry of wood. The S doorway is of a very uncommon design, the inner head being trefoiled within a well-moulded Pointed arch. There are three brasses, one of 1444 and two small ones of the time of James I.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Berkshire | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Stanford-Dingley St. Denis | |
| Hundred | Faircross | |
| Poor Law union | Bradfield |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1538.
Churches
Church of England
St. Denis (parish church)
The church of St. Denis is an ancient and most interesting structure of flint and rubble, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch and a wooden belfry at the west end, probably of Perpendicular date, supported on wooden framework, rising from within the nave and containing 4 bells, re-hung in 1902: the chancel was rebuilt of brick about 1768 and has a Pointed arch of Transition Norman period: the arches of the nave arcades are of the same date, with the exception of the two easternmost, which are plain Norman; the south doorway displays an unusual design, its inner head being trefoiled within a moulded Pointed arch: there is a brass, dated 1444, to Margaret, wife of William Dyneley, esquire to Henry VI.; another to John Lyford, citizen and merchant tailor of London, a native of Stanford, ob. 1610, and a third to a civilian, with kneeling effigy: some highly glazed and richly designed bricks of an early date have been discovered and placed in the chancel wall; the walls of the church were originally covered with paintings, parts of which are still in good preservation: amongst other details, the scene of the Last Judgment is represented; there is also the figure of a royal personage, crowned and holding in his hand a heart, transfixed by three arrows; some of the patterns are extremely beautiful: the church was restored in 1870 and has 150 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Stanford Dingley was in Bradfield Registration District from 1837 to 1937 and Wokingham Registration District from 1937 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Stanford Dingley from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Stanford-Dingley (St. Denis))
- Kelly's Directory of Berkshire, 1915
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Berkshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Stanford Dingley are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
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.