Stanford in the Vale

Stanford in the Vale is an attractive large village about four miles from Faringdon and six from Wantage. It lies just off the A417 which skirts the village on its western edge. The village is thought to be named after a stone ford in the area. This may have been a crossing of the River Ock where the bridge now spans the river before Stanford Mill, however it could equally have been a crossing of Frogmore Brook.

In the centre of the village is an attractive village green with the Church of St. Denys on the western edge and picturesque old cottages, the manor house and one of the village pubs on the others. On the green there are many lime trees which were planted to celebrate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. The Manor House was once occupied by Anne Neville, daughter of the Earl of Warwick and the south porch of the church was built to mark her marriage to the Duke of Gloucester, later Richard III.

The Church of St. Denys is named after the patron saint of France and was founded in about the year 939. There was some major reconstruction in the late 13th century and further additions to the building made in the 14th and 15th centuries. The present external appearance of the church is substantially how it would have been in the 16th century, by which time a steeple had fallen or been blown down.

Stanford was once a farming community and had eight farms and milk was sent to London every day by train from Challow station. At one time there were two flour mills, two smithies, a brickmaking yard, a wheelwright's yard and two sets of threshing tackle and a carpenter.