Unfortunately i am unable to place this cache near to the church as there is already one opposite. It a shame to miss out this church micro so have placed the cache at the first available spot adhering to the placement rules of distance between caches. Please have a walk or drive down the road to see the church.
This pretty village has a lovely St John the Baptist Church at its heart. As the village has alot of caches already placed in the vicinity including right opposite the church, this is the closest i could get to it but if you wander down the road 250m then you will see the church set back on the right hand side.
The church was at one time dedicated to both St John the Baptist and St Luke but in 1922 St Luke was dropped from the title, The church is near the river soar and was once forded hence the name stanford being derived from stean ford meaning stone ford. Part of the ancient ford could still be seen as recently as the 1960's not far from the church. There used to be a toll bridge across the river and until 1934 the Old Toll House stood as a reminder of those days and the foundations of this house still remain at the back of the church.
Major restoration of the church was conducted in 1893 thanks to the generosity of the then owner of Stanford Hall and patron to the church, Mr Richard Ratcliff. The village was once right on the banks of the river soar but at the end of the 20th Century the village was moved from the field next to the river and virtually rebuilt. Many of the houses were built by Richard Ratcliff and his initials are still on some of the houses. Then later with the arrival of the Great Central Railway the course of the River Soar was diverted and there is now a high embankment.
*if anybody would like to add to this series then please do, but please email sadexploration first at churchmicro@gmail.com so he can keep track of the church numbers, stats and information page found via the bookmarks list.