Stoke Row is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Chiltern Hills The Chiltern Hills or the Chilterns are a chalk escarpment in southern England, located to the north-west of London, covering across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire; they stretch from Goring-on-Thames in the south- ...

, about west of

Henley-on-Thames Henley-on-Thames ( ) is a town status in the United Kingdom, town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish on the River Thames, in the South Oxfordshire district, in Oxfordshire, England, northeast of Reading, Berkshire, Reading, west of M ...

South Oxfordshire South Oxfordshire is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Oxfordshire, England. Its council is temporarily based outside the district at Abingdon-on-Thames pending a p ...

and about north of

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

. The 2011 Census recorded the parish population as 651.

History

The earliest known surviving record of the name is from 1435. Stoke is a common place-name derived from

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

, typically meaning a secondary settlement or outlying farmstead. With the affix "row" it means a "row of houses at Stoke". Stoke Row was a hamlet divided between the ancient parishes, and later

es, of

Ipsden Ipsden is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Chiltern Hills in South Oxfordshire, about southeast of Wallingford, Oxfordshire, Wallingford. It is almost equidistant from Oxford and Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Berkshi ...

, Newnham Murren and

Mongewell Mongewell is a village in the Civil parishes in England, civil parish of Crowmarsh in the South Oxfordshire district, in Oxfordshire, England, about south of Wallingford, Oxfordshire, Wallingford. Mongewell is on the east bank of the Thames, li ...

. It was made a

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status A chapelry had a similar status to a Township (England), township, but was so named as it had a chapel of ease ...

in 1849. From 1932 it was divided between Ipsden and Crowmarsh, into which Newnham Murren and Mongewell were merged. In 1952 Stoke Row was made a new civil parish.

Parish church

The

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ...

of St

John the Evangelist John the Evangelist ( – ) is the name traditionally given to the author of the Gospel of John. Christians have traditionally identified him with John the Apostle, John of Patmos, and John the Presbyter, although there is no consensus on how ...

was consecrated in 1846. It was designed in 13th-century style by the architect RC Hussey and is built of knapped flint with stone dressings. The church has a north

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

with an octagonal

belfry The belfry /ˈbɛlfri/ is a structure enclosing bells for ringing as part of a building, usually as part of a bell tower or steeple. It can also refer to the entire tower or building, particularly in continental Europe for such a tower attached ...

and short

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...

with a

wood shingle Wood shingles are thin, tapered pieces of wood primarily used to cover roof shingle, roofs and walls of buildings to protect them from the weather. Historically roof shingle, shingles, also known as shakes, were split from straight grained, k ...

roof. The

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

is now a member of The Langtree Team Ministry: a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

that also includes the parishes of

Checkendon Checkendon is a village and civil parish about west of Henley-on-Thames in South Oxfordshire and about north west of Reading in Berkshire on a mid-height swathe of the Chilterns. History The parish records exist from the 7th century. The vi ...

, North Stoke,

Whitchurch-on-Thames Whitchurch-on-Thames is a village and civil parish on the Oxfordshire bank of the River Thames, about northwest of Reading, Berkshire, in close proximity to Whitchurch Hill. Opposite Whitchurch on the Berkshire bank is the village of Pangbou ...

and

Woodcote Woodcote is a village and civil parish in the South Oxfordshire district, in Oxfordshire, England, about southeast of Wallingford and about northwest of Reading. It is in the Chiltern Hills, and the highest part of the village is above sea ...

Independent chapel

The history of

Dissenter A dissenter (from the Latin , 'to disagree') is one who dissents (disagrees) in matters of opinion, belief, etc. Dissent may include political opposition to decrees, ideas or doctrines and it may include opposition to those things or the fiat of ...

s meeting in the village dates from 1691. Stoke Row Independent Chapel was built in 1815. It is a Georgian building with

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

footings and a

hipped roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other vertical sides ...

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

. In 1884 a Sunday school room was built at the back of the chapel. An extension was built in 1956. In 2015 an outdoor service was held to celebrate the chapel's bicentenary.

Ministers

* 1959–65: Pastor Ernest Dickerson * 1967–72: Rev John Potts * 1973–75: Rev Arthur Tilling * 1977–90: Rev Padre Bernard Railton Bax * 1990–2004: Rev John Harrington * 2004–10: Rev David Holmwood * 2010–16: Revs David and Sonia Jackson * 2016– present: Rev Mark Taylor

Maharajah's Well

Edward Anderton Reade, the local

squire In the Middle Ages, a squire was the shield- or armour-bearer of a knight. Boys served a knight as an attendant, doing simple but important tasks such as saddling a horse or caring for the knight's weapons and armour. Terminology ''Squire'' ...

, had worked with the

Maharajah Maharaja (also spelled Maharajah or Maharaj; ; feminine: Maharani) is a royal title in Indian subcontinent of Sanskrit origin. In modern India and medieval northern India, the title was equivalent to a prince. However, in late ancient India ...

Benares Varanasi (, also Benares, Banaras ) or Kashi, is a city on the Ganges, Ganges river in North India, northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hinduism, Hindu world.* * * * The city ...

in India in the mid-nineteenth century. Under Reade's leadership, a well was sunk in 1831 to aid the community in

Azamgarh Azamgarh is a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is the headquarters of Azamgarh division, which consists of Ballia, Mau and Azamgarh districts. Azamgarh is situated on the bank of Tamsa River (Tons). It is located east of the ...

. Reade left the area in 1860, and after his departure, the Maharajah decided to make a contribution to Reade's home area in England. Recalling Reade's help in creating the Azimgurgh well in 1831 and his stories of water deprivation in his home area of

the Maharajah commissioned the well at Stoke Row and it was sunk in 1863. The Wallingford firm of RJ and H Wilder made the well mechanism in 1863 and completed the pavilion over the well in 1864. The

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings; * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

is open-sided with a

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

on top and a golden-coloured elephant above the well mechanism. The well and pavilion can be seen in a small park on the north side of the main road through Stoke Row village. Another Indian aristocrat, Maharaja Sir Deonarayun Singh, probably motivated the Stoke Row project, donated a well to the nearby village of

Amenities

The village has two 17th-century

pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

s: the Cherry Tree Inn, a Brakspear

tied house In the United Kingdom, a tied house is a public house required to buy at least some of its beer from a particular brewery or pub company. That is in contrast to a free house, which is able to choose the beers it stocks freely. A report for th ...

and the Crooked Billet a free house. Built in 1642 the pub is reputed to have once been the hideout of highwayman

Dick Turpin Richard Turpin (bapt. 21 September 1705 – 7 April 1739) was an English highwayman whose exploits were romanticised following his execution in York for horse theft. Turpin may have followed his father's trade as a butcher ear ...

, who was said to have been in love with the landlord's daughter, Bess. It was England's first

gastropub A gastropub or gastro pub is a pub that serves food of high quality, with a nearly equal emphasis on eating and drinking. The term was coined in the 1990s in the United Kingdom. History The term ''gastropub'' (derived from gastronomy) was coi ...

and was the venue for ''Titanic'' star

Kate Winslet Kate Elizabeth Winslet (; born 5 October 1975) is an English actress. Primarily known for her roles as headstrong and complicated women in independent films, particularly period dramas, she has received numerous accolades, including an Ac ...

's wedding reception. In June 1989 the British

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

band

Marillion Marillion are a British neo-prog band, formed in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in 1979. They emerged from the post-punk music scene in Britain and existed as a bridge between the styles of punk rock and classic progressive rock, becoming the mo ...

played its first performance with

Steve Hogarth Steve Hogarth (born Ronald Stephen Hoggarth, 14 May 1956), also known as "h", is an English musician. Since 1989, he has been the lead singer of the rock band Marillion, for which he also performs additional keyboards and guitar. Hogarth was f ...

as frontman at the pub; a documentary DVD called ''From Stoke Row To

Ipanema Ipanema () is a neighbourhood located in the South Zone (Rio de Janeiro), South Zone of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, between Leblon, Rio de Janeiro, Leblon and Arpoador. The beach at Ipanema became known internationally with the populari ...

– A Year In The Life'' was subsequently produced. In the 1851 Census the head of the household at No 1 Stoke Row was George Hope, who built "The Hope" public house. This was later called "The Farmer" and today is Hope House, at the junction of Main Street with Nottwood Lane. The parish has a

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

Notable residents

* George Cole (1925–2015), actor, lived in Stoke Row for more than 70 years. * Carol Decker (born 1957), former singer of T'Pau, in 2006 became a joint tenant of the Cherry Tree Inn which her husband Richard Coates had established. It closed in 2012, but later reopened under new ownership. *

Nick Heyward Nicholas Heyward (born 20 May 1961) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. He came to international attention in the early 1980s as the lead singer and songwriter for Haircut One Hundred. He and the band parted ways after their first al ...

(born 1961), singer-songwriter and guitarist, has lived in the village since 2014.

Gallery

File:The Crooked Billet Pub - geograph.org.uk - 412533.jpg, The Crooked Billet pub File:The Cherry Tree, Stoke Row - geograph.org.uk - 36354.jpg, The Cherry Tree Inn File:Stoke Row Independent Chapel.jpg, Stoke Row Independent Chapel File:Scholz R StokeRow StJohnE.jpg, Grave of a Free Czechoslovak airman in St John's parish churchyard File:StokeRow MaharajahsWell wide.jpg, The Maharajah's Well, with Well Cottage behind the hedge on the right file:Maharajahs Well cupola UK Oxfordshire.jpg, Maharajah's well cupola with wording "His Highness the Maharajah of Benares" File:Maharajahs Well elephant inside.jpg, Maharajah's Well - golden elephant inside

References

Sources

* * * * * *

External links

Stoke Row

Stoke Row C.E. Primary School

Stoke Row Chapel
{{authority control Civil parishes in Oxfordshire Villages in Oxfordshire