An Outline History of Stanford in the Vale
By Teddy Cuff & James Brooks
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Medieval Stanford
Posession of the Manor changed with the changing fortunes of power struggles around the Crown during the Medieval period. In 1230, Henry de Ferrers' descendant William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby (d. 1249), was granted by Henry III a charter to hold a weekly market in Stanford on Thursdays, and a yearly fair on the vigil, the feast and the morrow of St. Denys (patron saint of France, martyred about A.D. 286, to whom the church in Stanford, and, incidentally, those at Northmoor, Oxon., and Stanford Dingley, Berks., were dedicated). Robert de Ferrers (?1240-?79), having championed the baronial cause against Henry III, forfeited his earldom and estates in 1266, and the Manor was granted to Gilvert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford. Through female heirs, the Manor passed from the Clares to the Despencers, Beauchamps and Nevilles. It was attacked at irregular periods about 1320 by forces opposed to the Despencers, and Hugh le Despencer, father and son, were hanged in 1326. Thomas Despencer, a later heir to the Manor, was beheaded in 1400. Ane Neville (1456-85), Countess of Warwick, held the Manor in 1472, but like many of her predecessors with excessive manorial holdings, there is little or no evidence that she ever visited Stanford, let alone lived there. No conclusive evidence has been found that she and Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who was crowned Richard III in 1483, were married in St. Denys' Church, although proponents point to some intriguing associations between the royal pair and the village. The south porch of St. Denys' church, bearing the arms of York and Warwick, was built about 1475, perhaps to commemorate the royal wedding.
Subsequently, the Manor, by 1489 belonging to the Crown, in 1520 passed to the Fettiplace family, and thence to the Knollys' in 1570, taking us into the post-Elizabethan period.
The medieval solar still extant at the south end of the manor is one of the few visible traces of the buildings of this early period, but Stanford's greatest medieval glory is the church. Though founded in 939, the structural development of the church began in the 12th century with the addition of the north and south doors. This was followed by the addition of the two lower stages of the tower in the 13th century. In the 14th century the north aisle was added, the chancel rebuilt and altered, and the decorated windows created in the south wall. The north porch was added in the early 15th century, and in the late 15th century tge south porch was built or rebuilt, together with the large window above. The nave walls were raised early in the 16th century, the earlier steep roof replaced by a flat one, and the clerstory windows above the north aisle added. With the top storey of the tower and the battlements added, the church began to look as we know today. The advowson of the church went with the Manor until the end of the 15th century, thence by Queen Anne to the college of St. Margaret & St. Bernard, Cambridge, and thence by Henry VII or Henr y VIII to Westminster Abbey.
For the common people of Stanford, life must have been very hard, at subsistence farming level relieved by markets, fairs and the ever present church ceremonial. Presumably there was also the passing traffic to watch and from which to gather the latest news. Pack horses loaded with wool from the Cotswolds came down the 'Hrycg Weg', a ridge of slightly higher ground linking Stanford with Faringdon via Shellingford, and more illustrious people braved the medieval roads and fords and often got stuck in the mid, as, for example, the Bishop of Hereford in 1289. In the area around Stanford there is some evidence of former medieval villages having been deserted at some time, not necessarily in medieval times, such as at Stanford Wick near the 'Wick Closes', Circourt in Denchworth parish and Barcote in Buckland parish, although Gainfield, for instance, has been rejected as a possible deserted medieval village by John Brooks; and evidence of other settlements having shrunk, such as Hatford, Goosey, Baulking and West Challow. The moated site at Stanford Park Farm is likely to be 18th century, not medieval as was once thought. It is not clear when or why Stanford's influence as a market centre declined, or indeed that of Baulking, which was a market town by 1219, although presumably this process was complete by the 18th century. Faringdon and Wantage were both royal vills before the Norman Conquest, and with Abingdon would have been thriving market centres by the 13th century; presumably, improved roads and access to the Thames assisted their economic fortunes at the expense of Stanford's.
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