An Outline History of Stanford in the Vale
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Post-War Stanford
Post-war developments included new housing, and the extension of utilities first supplied only to the airfield and associated sites. The population of the village increased dramatically. Turnover of the local population was greater than in preceding centuries; the Rev. H. Selwyn Fry (vicar, 1963- 76) noted in the Parish Newsletter of June 1973 that of the approximately 300 Baptism Services that he had performed in St. Denys', some 54% of those baptised no longer lived in the parish. Mains water supply from the reservoir at Folly Hill, Faringdon, arrived in Stanford in the early 1950s. Sewerage was extended throughout the village in about 1961-62. Mains gas supply only arrived in the village with the Farmpiece development in 2003, adjacent to the A417, but to date (2014) has not been extended to the rest of the village.
New housing estates were built:
- Joyces Road (1st phase: 1935-46; 2nd phase: about 1963-70)
- Van Diemans (1st phase: about 1948; 2nd phase 1964; 3rd phase: begun in 1970)
- Perry's Road (1st phase: 1964; 2nd phase: early 1970s)
- Hunters Field (about 1963- 70) plus Church Path, Warwick Close, Neville Way, Manor Green (about 1966) and Manor Crescent (1964)
- Glebe Road (about 1970)
- New houses on Cottage Road (about 1972) plus Upper Crale (about 1973)
- Wordsworth Close (early 1980s)
- Spencers Close (1st phase: 1983-86; 2nd phase: 1992)
- Cox's Court (1986-87)
- A new close on Sheards Lane (about 1987-88)
- Southdown Court (1980s)
- Treadwells (1988-89)
- Tyrrell Close (about 1988, after the 1987 sale of former allotments land)
- A new close on Horsecroft (early 1990s, built on the site of Pendell & Spinage, one of the many village building companies)
- New closes on Chapel Road on the site of the Old Corn Store (about 1988) and at Hatch's Farm (1995)
- Penstones Court (1993)
- Anvil Court (1996)
- Ock Meadow (1998, on the site of House & Sons nurseries)
- Farm Piece (2003)
As farming became less important to the local economy, the motor car became more important to individuals, both for getting to places of employment, and for services and shopping.
The Stanford in the Vale Community Minibus began services in 1982, taking shape from an idea of Philip Morris, in response to the reduction of the existing commercial bus services to Wantage and Faringdon, and was the first community-operated minibus in Oxfordshire. The commercial pressures of large marketing complexes elsewhere have had their effect on local shops and services.
In 1973, the UK joined the European Community. Following the Local Government Act of 1972, in 1974 the Vale of White Horse became a District Council in the newly enlarged County of Oxfordshire, and thus Stanford ceased to be part of north Berkshire.
In recent years two major fires have hit the village. The first, on the 21st August 2005, took place when the row of five cottages fronting Church Green, caught ablaze, due to a smouldering chimney fire which took hold in the thatched roofs, and quickly spread. The second fire occurred on the 6th July 2013, within the roof space and second and first floors of the village pub, the Horse and Jockey.
In 2012, in the grounds of St Denys Church, a formal stone War Memorial was built to commemorate those who sacrificed their lives in the pursuit of freedom during the First and Second World Wars.
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