Stoke Row

The earliest known surviving record of the name is from 1435. Stoke is a common place-name derived from Old English, typically meaning a secondary settlement or outlying farmstead. With the affix "row" it means a "row of houses at Stoke".{{harvnb|Watts|2010|loc=Stoke Row}} Stoke Row was a hamlet divided between the ancient parishes, and later civil parishes, of Ipsden, Newnham Murren and Mongewell. It was made a chapelry in 1849.{{harvnb|Wilson|1870–72|loc=[http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/place_page.jsp?p_id=22798&st=STOKE%20ROW]}} From 1932 it was divided between Ipsden and Crowmarsh, into which Newnham Murren and Mongewell were merged.{{cite web |url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/relationships.jsp?u_id=10324907 |title=Crowmarsh CP |work=Vision of Britain |publisher=University of Portsmouth }} In 1952 Stoke Row was made a new civil parish.{{cite web |url= http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/relationships.jsp?u_id=10350190 |title=Stoke Row CP |work=Vision of Britain |publisher=University of Portsmouth }}

The Church of England parish church of St John the Evangelist was consecrated in 1846.{{sfn|Lewis|1931|pp=220–224}} It was designed in 13th-century style by the architect RC Hussey{{harvnb|Sherwood|Pevsner|1974|p=789}} and is built of knapped flint with stone dressings. The church has a north tower with an octagonal belfry and short spire with a wood shingle roof.{{NHLE |num=1369052 |desc=Church of St John the Evangelist |grade=II |access-date=25 July 2018}} The ecclesiastical parish is now a member of The Langtree Team Ministry: a Church of England benefice that also includes the parishes of Checkendon, Ipsden, North Stoke, Whitchurch-on-Thames and Woodcote.{{cite web |url= http://langtreechurches.org/campus-locations/ |title=Locations |publisher=The Langtree Team Ministry |access-date=25 July 2018}}

The history of Dissenters meeting in the village dates from 1691.{{cite web |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=7hlDAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA306 |title=Journals of the House of Lords |volume=65 |page=306 |year=1833}} Stoke Row Independent Chapel was built in 1815. It is a Georgian building with flint footings and a hipped roof of slate.{{cite web |url= http://ohct.org.uk/church/independent-chapel/ |title=Independent Chapel |publisher=Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust |date=12 September 2015 |access-date=11 November 2015}} In 1884 a Sunday school room was built at the back of the chapel.{{NHLE |num=1271461 |desc=Stoke Row Independent Chapel |grade=II |access-date=25 July 2018}} An extension was built in 1956. In 2015 an outdoor service was held to celebrate the chapel's bicentenary.{{cite news |url= http://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/news.php?id=41154 |title=Celebrating 200 years of worship |newspaper=Henley Standard |publisher=Higgs Group |date=27 June 2015 |access-date=11 November 2015}}

• 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

Edward Anderton Reade, the local squire at Ipsden, had worked with the Maharajah of Benares in India in the mid-nineteenth century. Under Reade's leadership, a well was sunk in 1831 to aid the community in Azamgarh. 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 Ipsden{{citation needed|date=July 2018}} 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{{harvnb|Williamson|1983|p=}}{{page needed |date=July 2018}} and completed the pavilion over the well in 1864.{{NHLE |num=1180547 |desc=Maharajah's Well |grade=II |access-date=24 October 2018}} The pavilion is open-sided with a cupola 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 Ipsden.

The village has two 17th-century pubs: the Cherry Tree Inn, a Brakspear tied house[http://www.thecherrytreeinn.co.uk/ Cherry Tree Inn]{{NHLE |num=1059327 |desc=Cherry Tree public house |grade=II |access-date=25 July 2018}} and the Crooked Billet{{NHLE |num=1180667 |desc=The Crooked Billet public house |grade=II |access-date=25 July 2018}} a free house.[http://www.thecrookedbillet.co.uk/ The Crooked Billet] Built in 1642 the pub is reputed to have once been the hideout of highwayman Dick Turpin, who was said to have been in love with the landlord's daughter, Bess.{{cite web |url=https://www.thecrookedbillet.co.uk/history |title=History |publisher=The Crooked Billet |access-date=22 February 2024}} It was England's first gastropub and was the venue for Titanic star Kate Winslet's wedding reception. In June 1989 the British progressive rock band Marillion played its first performance with Steve Hogarth as frontman at the pub; a documentary DVD called From Stoke Row To Ipanema – A Year In The Life was subsequently produced.{{cite web |url= http://www.btinternet.com/~europeans/Crooked.htm |title=Steve Hogarth's first Marillion Gig at The Crooked Billet |archive-url= https://archive.today/20120605025851/http://www.btinternet.com/~europeans/Crooked.htm |archive-date=5 June 2012}} In the 1851 Census the head of the household at No 1 Stoke Row was George Hope, who built "The Hope" public house.{{cite web |url= http://www.oldplace.free-online.co.uk/sr1851.htm |title=Stoke Row Census Return 1851 |date=February 2002 |publisher=Angela Spencer-Harper }} This was later called "The Farmer" and today is Hope House, at the junction of Main Street with Nottwood Lane. The parish has a Church of England primary school.[http://www.stoke-row-school.co.uk/ Stoke Row Church of England Primary School]

• George Cole (1925–2015), actor, lived in Stoke Row for more than 70 years.{{cite news |last=Ward |first=Victoria |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/10277483/Actor-George-Cole-in-dispute-over-local-sawmill.html |title=Actor George Cole in dispute over local sawmill |work=Daily Telegraph |date=31 August 2013}}
• 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/689272.the_sugar_loaf_gets_a_makeover_and_a_new_style_of_cuisine/ |title=The Sugar Loaf gets a makeover and a new style of cuisine (From Bucks Free Press) |publisher=Bucksfreepress.co.uk |date=15 February 2006 |accessdate=31 December 2011}} It closed in 2012,{{cite web|url=http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/local-news/last-orders-cherry-tree-4205571 |title=Last orders for The Cherry Tree |publisher=getreading |date=19 January 2012 |accessdate=7 July 2014}} but later reopened under new ownership.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}
• Nick Heyward (born 1961), singer-songwriter and guitarist, has lived in the village since 2014.{{cite journal |title=Nick Heyward |url= http://www.henleystandard.co.uk/pageturning/henleylife/1408/files/assets/basic-html/page7.html |access-date=8 July 2015 |journal=Henley Life |page=7 |date=August 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150709214613/http://www.henleystandard.co.uk/pageturning/henleylife/1408/files/assets/basic-html/page7.html |archive-date=9 July 2015 |df=dmy-all }}

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

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |editor1-last=Lewis |editor1-first=Samuel |editor1-link=Samuel Lewis (publisher) |orig-year=1848 |year=1931 |title=A Topographical Dictionary of England |edition=Seventh |place=London |publisher=Samuel Lewis |pages=220–224 |url= http://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-dict/england/pp220-224 }}
• {{cite book |last1=Sherwood |first1=Jennifer |last2=Pevsner |first2=Nikolaus |author-link2=Nikolaus Pevsner |series=The Buildings of England |title=Oxfordshire |year=1974 |publisher=Penguin Books |place=Harmondsworth |isbn=0-14-071045-0 |page=789 }}
• {{cite book |last=Spencer-Harper |first=Angela |title=Dipping into the Wells: The Story of the Two Chiltern Villages of Stoke Row and Highmoor Seen Through the Lives of Their Inhabitants |year=1999 |publisher=Robert Boyd Publications |place=Witney |isbn=1-899536-35-3 }}
• {{Cite book |editor-last=Watts |editor-first=Victor |editor-link=Victor Watts |year=2010 |title=The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names |contribution=Stoke Row |pages=510, 577 |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press }}
• {{cite book |last=Williamson |first=LD |title=An Illustrated History of The Maharajah's Well |year=1983 |publisher=The Maharajah's Well Trust |location=Stoke Row }}
• {{cite book |last=Wilson |first=John Marius |author-link=John Marius Wilson |title=Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales |date=1870–72 |place=London and Edinburgh |publisher=A Fullarton and Co }}

{{Commons category|Stoke Row}}

• [http://stokerow.info/ Stoke Row]
• [http://www.stoke-row-school.co.uk/ Stoke Row C.E. Primary School]
• [https://stokerowchapel.org/ Stoke Row Chapel]

{{South Oxfordshire}}

{{authority control}}

Category:Civil parishes in Oxfordshire

Category:Villages in Oxfordshire