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Standlake is an appropriate name, one might think, particularly looking at the
village from the air, as it is surrounded by at least eight lakes. In 1718 the
diarist Richard Rawlinson wrote that Standlake was among streams in a moorish
lakish soil and situate on a damd standing puddle, long, deep and dirty. In
fact the old English meaning of Standlake is hill by a stony stream. Three old
hamlets form Standlake as we know it today: Standlake, Brittenton and
Brighthampton.
In 1228 the living of the church of St Giles was presented by Lady Eva de Cray
to John de Limesaya. The 750th anniversary of this event was celebrated in 1978,
when a booklet 1228 & All That was published by the Standlake History Society.
From 1543 until 1947 the living was in the gift of Magdalen College and on one
occasion the Duke of Windsor, who was then Prince of Wales, visited the rectory
with the Magdalen College Beagles. Four Oxford Colleges owned a large part of
the village until the end of the First World War when they sold off much of
their property.
A large army hut, purchased in 1921, served as village hall until 1989 when a
new village hall was opened. To mark the occasion a village map was made,
incorporating pictorial contributions from all village organisations and the
primary school children, and water colours of a number of properties.
Standlake has few village customs: primary school children receive a penny
loaf on Ascension Day and income from land bequeathed by the Rev John Chambers
in 1721 provides book prizes; the crowning of the Rose Queen at the annual
Church Fete was introduced by a rector to the parish in 1951; the Church Fete
has been in existence since 1950, having superseded the Flower Show. Barrel
rolling and a tug-of-war competition between teams from the local pubs have both
ceased in recent years. Dr Robert Plot in his Natural History of Oxfordshire,
1705, mentioned that the parson, in procession on Holy Thursday, read a gospel
at a barrels head in the cellar of the Chequer Inn, which was once a hermitage
and where there had been a cross. The Chequer Inn was on the main London to
Gloucester road, now the Abingdon road, but ceased to be a public house in 1789
when other routes became more important. There is an old jingle:
The Bell tolling, the Ball rolling, the black Horse kicking.
These are the names of the three pubs remaining in the village out of eight in
existence in the 18th century.
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