England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Stanford in the Vale St Denys

The Parish

The parish of Stanford in the Vale, the "Vale" is that of the White Horse, a believed to be Bronze Age chalk-cut figure of a stylised horse, lies in northwestern Berkshire not too far from either its boundary with neighbouring Oxfordshire and also with that with Wiltshire. Stanford in the Vale is located just over 5 miles northwest of the market town of Wantage and sits on and immediately east of the A417 road which connects Wantage with Faringdon & Lechlade. Stanford in the Vale is a large village, at one time it qualified for a market but that function was usurped by both Faringdon & Wantage, which is built around a rough square of roads with the A417 forming its western edge. Within that square of lanes Stanford in the Vale is quite remarkable in having two village greens surrounded by some handsome properties from Georgian & earlier times. The Vale in which Stanford in the Vale sits lies to the north of the escarpment of chalk forming the Berkshire Downs, around Stanford in the Vale it lies on clay-rich ground which led to pastoral farming forming the mainstay of the local economy, today with heavy machinery and modern fertilisers the landscape has become much more arable. Modern developments have clipped the area of the parish, Brunel's Great Western Railway line from London to the southwest passing to the south of the former subsidiary chapelry of Goosey. Stanford in the Vale is drained northeastwards by the infant River Ock which heads next east to meet the Thames at Abingdon, thence through the capital to the North Sea. Stanford in the Vale is sited at around 70 metres above the sea, land close by being gently undulating at or close to that height until that chalk escarpment of the Downs is met nearly 5 miles further south. Western Berkshire parishes were considerably larger than most in southern counties and Stanford in the Vale was no exception, covering just over 2,800 acres it would have supported a population of around 1,150 parishioners. In Domesday times it was already a prosperous rural settlement, held by Henry de Ferrers it could offer 12 ploughs, with potential for 8 more, over 300 acres of meadows and had 2 mills.

The Church

St Denys' church sits on the eastern side of Stanford in the Vale's square of lanes fronted by one of the village's extensive village greens. Today's church has its origins as early as the 12th century with Norman Romanesque work remaining in the southern doorway, the church has, however, been steadily built, rebuilt and modified since those times. Much else dates from the Decorated period of the late 13th and early 14th centuries, the western tower, originally built to the marked band three-quarters of the way up, and the rather spacious chancel both represent this period admirably. That tower has had a rather chequered history, however, heightened in around the cusp of 15th into 16th century it was topped by a spire which subsequently fell in 1631, thankfully without causing undue damage to the rest of the church. The church received two Victorian restorations, the first in 1851, the second in the mid 1880s but much of the changes made by these two well-meaning acts was removed during further restoration in more modern times, in 1970. The extensive greens criss-crossed by minor lanes provides ample opportunities for parking. The churchyard is flanked by  a low local stone wall with a gap for entry facing those greens, the churchyard is broad but quite narrow on a north/south axis requiring some creativity to achieve a landscape view.