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An Outline History of Stanford in the Vale
By Teddy Cuff & James Brooks

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 Great 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

Post-War Stanford

Postwar 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- 73) 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 1950's. Sewerage was extended throughout the village in about 1961-62. The closest gas main to the village is at Shellingford crossroads.

New housing estates were built:

  • Joyces Road (1st phase: 1935-46; 2nd phase: about 1963-70)
  • Van Diemans Road (1st phase: about 1948; 2nd phase 1964; 3rd phase: begun in 1970)
  • Perry's Road (1st phase: 1964; 2nd phase: early 1970s)
  • Wordsworth Close (early 1980s )
  • 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)
  • 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 (about 1987-88, where nursery greenhouses had previously stood)
  • Treadwells (1988-89)
  • Tyrrell Close (about 1988, after the 1987 sale of former allotments land)
  • A new close on Horsecroft (about 1990)
  • New closes on Chapel Road on the site of the Old Corn Store (about 1988) and at Hatch's Farm (1995)
  • Anvil Court (1996)

As farming became less important to the local economy, the motor car became more important to individuals, for getting to places of employment, for services and for 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.


Reader Comments

Terry Belcher writes:

  Your info about the post war building in the village is slightly incorrect - the close known as Southdown Court was built in the '80s however the rest of the buildings were built in the late '90s after the nursery that had operated on the site closed (house & sons, owned by Charles Hornby) the other close that was built on Horsecroft was built on the site of Pendell & Spinach (one of the many village building companies at the time) & was built in the early '90s.  


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