Stanford Road, once known as the Wantage Road, turns off right from the top end of London Street. It is one of the roads that made Faringdon the important five-way road junction of the past. It once formed part of an important and ancient route from Gloucester, Cirencester and Lechlade to Reading and the shipping on the lower Thames, which was in modern times designated as the A417. It has now been cut off by the bypass which opened in 1979. Ferndale (Union) Street branches off immediately to the right and on the left is a footpath up to Folly Hill. The road continues up and over the side of Folly Hill and a number of new housing estates have been built on the right-hand side, across fields and what was Tucker’s Nurseries over to Southampton Street.
Also see our house by house tour of Stanford Road in the Year 2000.
See Faringdon Streets for an indexed list of all streets in Faringdon.
Views of Stanford Road
1994. The start of Stanford Road looking up from the junction with Ferndale Street (off photo to the right). Note the no-through road sign put there since the bypass. A footpath up the hill to the tower is just up where the wall juts out on the left.
1953 & c1987. The start of Stanford Road looking back towards London Street. Across the road on the corner of Coach Lane was Blissett’s grocery shop, now a private house since 1971. Note the raised pavement in the later photo indicating the start of Folly Hill on the right. The footpath up the hill to the tower is just off photo. The large trees hanging over the wall on the right are in the grounds of Sudbury House. On the left, just passed the parked cars and in front of the tall white building is the turning into Ferndale Street, which runs parallel to London Street.
Directly opposite the footpath leading to Folly Hill used to be a short track called Windmill Lane that lead to an old windmill. Both are shown on maps from 1876 and 1910. This is probably the location of a pub called ‘Windmill’, which was listed as being on Windmill Street, Faringdon between 1847-63.
2022. Turning around to continue up the street is High House, #1 Stanford Road, with summer flowers in full bloom. The footpath up the Folly Hill to the tower is behind the railing on the left.
2000. #3 Stanford Road is marked on a map from 1876 as ‘The Mount’. Mr F.W. Atkins was advertising a steam thrashing and hauling business from this address in 1907. Behind these first two houses was a nursery.
2000. Further up and looking back at Hill Cottage, a Grade II Listed Building, #16 Stanford Road on the near corner with Berners Way. All the greenery smothering the walls has since been removed.
1953, 1980s, & 1994. The old National School for Boys building on the far corner with Berners Way. After closing as a school in 1935, this Grade II Listed Building has had many uses, one of which was as a youth club. In 1983 it was known to be a warehouse for Tucker’s Nurseries, which soon after disappeared under massive new housing developments in this area. By 1994 it had been renovated into two private houses. One end is called The Bell House and the other is Folly View House. The date shown on the wall below the bell on the gable end is 1823. The school opened 3 years after that date. Berners Way on the right leads to large new housing estate built during the 1980s that goes all the way down to Southampton Street. Berners Way was named after the 14th Lord Berners who purchased Faringdon House and estate in 1919 and had the Folly Tower built in 1935. Lord Berners was a composer, poet, playwright, eccentric, and the Lord of the Manor.
1994. Further up and looking back down the road with Tuckers Road on the left, which leads to a smaller new housing estate, built in the early 1990s. The name derives from Tucker’s Nurseries garden centre that used to be in this area – started by Robert Tucker in 1849 and still there in the early 1980s. Mrs Sarah Tucker also appears listed as a gardener with a nursery here in the Wantage Road in 1863. A descendent, Walter Tucker gave Tucker Park to the town as a lasting memorial to his son Mike Tucker who had been killed during the war, in 1940 at Dunkirk.
2000. Further up the road and looking back are Kiln Cottages, also Grade II Listed. The 1876 map shows a track just beyond the cottages leading to buildings behind, labelled as Faringdon Kilns. Mrs Godfrey Mercy was recorded in 1863 as a brickmaker in this road, so quite possibly here. By 1910 the map shows the area labelled as Folly Farm, which it remained until the new housing developments in the 1990s.
2000. There is another new housing estate further up Stanford Road on the right called Nursery View, built in the late 1990s above Faringdon Park. Radclive Nursery and Folly Farm used to be in this area. Folly Farm was still advertising its ‘retail store with a country flavour’ in 1995.
1953. An unusual looking cottage that was somewhere on Stanford Road at the time this photo was taken.
1978. Stanford Road looking towards the Folly (right of picture). The light strip of dirt across the road shows where the A420 bypass is about to truncate the road.
1985. Beyond the bypass, this milestone is after the kennels and just before the turning to Bowling Green Farm
Trade Adverts in Local Media
The following trades/traders were advertised in Faringdon in the years stated:
AKINS F.W. The Mount, Faringdon. Steam thrashing, hauling, FA 1907. #3 Stanford Road (on map 1876)
CHARNEY KENNELS, Stanford Road, Faringdon, FF 1992-1994.
FOLLY FARM, Faringdon, FF 1993, 1995.
Godfrey Mercy (Mrs), brickmaker, Wantage Road, DG 1863
Long James, master of national school, and registrar or births and deaths, Wantage Road, DG 1863
Tucker Sarah (Mrs), gardener and nursery, Wantage Road, DG 1863
TUCKER R. & SONS, The Nurseries, fruit trees, plants, FA 1907
Media Key: FA = Faringdon Advertiser; FDS = Faringdon Dramatic Society; FV = Faringdon Venture; FF = Faringdon Folly; DG = Directory & Gazetteer of Oxon, Berks & Bucks (Dutton, Allen & Co. 1863)
Researched by Ian Lee, May 2020.