Sandford-on-Thames, also referred to as simply Sandford, is a village and Parish Council beside the River Thames in Oxfordshire just south of Oxford. The village is just west of the A4074 road between Oxford and Henley.
Early history
In 1086 the Domesday Book counted 18 families as living by the sandy ford over the Thames between Iffley and Radley. Six hundred years later the population of the village had barely doubled, and it was still under 200 people at the start of the 19th century. Today the population numbers more than 1,000 and the parish boundaries have undergone considerable revision.
Parish church of Saint Andrew
In the middle of the 12th century a small "field church" dedicated to Saint Andrew was built on a hill in the Sandford manorial grounds for the use of the nearby Minchery nuns. The original Norman porch was restored and repaired in 1652 through the generosity of Elizabeth Isham but the majority of the improvement works to the church took place in the 25 years between 1840 and 1865. In the centre of the graveyard stands a fine yew tree planted on Good Friday 1800 and just to the east of the porch is a flat-topped gravestone from which bread was handed out to the poor of the parish. Four war memorials are on the south wall in St Andrew’s church: a wooden village shrine which lists the fallen of both World Wars, and three individual commemorative plaques to E.G. Wilkins, H.S. Cannon and H.C. Cannon. Each has been recorded and included in the National Inventory of War Memorials at the Imperial War Museum.
Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller
In 1239 Sir Thomas de Sandford gave land to the Knights Templar enclave in Oxford's Temple Cowley. In the reign of Edward II the Templars were suppressed and in 1324 the Knights Hospitaller took over. In 1541 Henry VIII dissolved the order, and the land passed to Cardinal Sir Thomas Wolsey.
River and lock
The river Thames dominates Sandford's history, with the fertile meadows promoting agriculture and the water providing both transport and power. Roman pottery from kilns found on the northern edge of the village hints at Sandford's manufacturing heritage. The toponym "Sandford" suggests a river crossing, and there are references to Sandford Ferry throughout history. In May 1644, during the English Civil War, the Earl of Essex took his troops across the river at Sandford to join the battle of Cropredy. Within living memory there was still a ferry (later a toll bridge) at the King's Arms public house by the river taking traffic, including horses and carts, over the river to Abingdon, once the county town of Berkshire. An ancient mounting block can still be seen on the western river bank just below the lock, which travellers would have used to remount their horses having crossed the river on foot.
In his book Three Men in a Boat, Jerome K. Jerome described the pool under Sandford lasher as "a very good place to drown yourself in". The watercourse behind the lock-keeper's house (dated 1914) flows from the "big lasher" weir which creates strong currents and eddies. In spite of the danger, this was a favourite swimming place up to the mid-20th century. In 1921 the river here claimed the lives of three Christ Church students, including Michael Llewelyn Davies, the adopted son of J. M. Barrie, who was the inspiration for Peter Pan. An obelisk that has stood here since at least 1821 records the deaths of six Christ Church students who drowned here in three separate incidents between 1843 and 1921. Even into the 1950s the river at Sandford-on-Thames was still regarded as a place to come and relax. On Sundays people came from Oxford to swim at The Lido below the lock and to picnic. The King's Arms had extensive tea-lawns on which to spend lazy Sunday afternoons.
The first lock at Sandford was the navigation weir or flash lock situated on the old river channel at the site of the lasher today. This was described in 1624 as "Great Lockes" and was replaced in about 1632 by one of the first pound locks to be built in England. Iffley, Sandford and Culham locks were built by the Oxford-Burcot Commission following the Parliament Act of 1623. The old lock has since been filled in but its position can still be seen (the position of the upper gates can be seen in the stonework above the present upper gates). A new lock on the present site was opened in 1836 which lasted until the most recent improvements when the present lock was built in 1972. Littlemore Brook joins the River Thames near Sandford-on-Thames.