An Outline History of Stanford in the Vale
Browse Chapters: Introduction Prehistory Romano-British Anglo-Saxon	Domesday Stanford Medieval Stanford Reformation and Tudor Stanford Civil War Stanford Early Modern Stanford	19th Century Stanford The First World War The Inter-War Years The Second World War Post-War Stanford
Church and Chapel Schools and Libraries Civic Administration Newsletters	Health and Social Services, and Young People Village Halls Fairs, Festivals and Fetes	Clubs and Societies Businesses Acknowledgements & Further Reading
Additional articles: BBC Domesday 1986	Church Green Fire 2005 Coat Of Arms	Virtual Tour 2003 The Living Churchyard (PDF)

The Inter-War Years

Businesses associated with the motor trade first appear in directories in the 1920s, with Harry Albion Cox becoming an agent for bicycles and motor cars, William Henry Day setting up as a motor cab proprietor and cycle agent, and William Clay expanding his haulage contractor business. By the 1930s there was a garage in the village, Stanford Garage, first owned by Arthur George Weeks, then A W. Anderton & J. Copland. Mr. Day had expanded his business to include a petrol station, and George Robinson had a motor hire service. His father Charlie is reputed to have had the first car in the village, a Benz, also used as a taxi.

Change was also appearing with increased mechanisation of agriculture. Local businesses associated with horse conveyance, such as saddlers and harness-makers, had largely ceased by the 1930s when William Carter's name last appears in the directories. However, the blacksmith and wheelwright, George Robinson, and Isaac T. Smith & Sons, continued until after the war, by which time the horse-drawn plough had largely been replaced by the tractor.

Telephone numbers first appear in the directories between 1924 and 1928. Electricity arrived in the village in about 1936-37, put in by the Wessex Electricity Company. Before the First World War, the Puzeys were probably the largest employer in the village, with men and women employed at the Brickworks at Bow and at their farms at Penstones, Chinham and Bow.

Pendell & Spinage (building contractors) was founded after the First World War by George Pendell and John Spinage, and they became the biggest employers in the village in the 1930s-1950s, employing at one time more than a hundred people directly, in addition to subcontractors. Pendell & Spinage's main premises were on Horsecroft and Sheards Lane, and in addition to their building work they owned land and property in the parish, and quarried locally at Gainfield, Shellingford and the site recently closed to tipping on the Faringdon Road, the latter from the late 1930s to about 1949. Also, they had a role assumed at one time by Knapp's, that of the village undertakers.