SOUTH STOKE'S PAST: A MISCELLANY

South Stoke is a Thameside village in the county of Oxfordshire, of about 500 inhabitants and has been a rural community for centuries. Over the last thirty to forty years one of the village groups, "The South Stoke Historical Society", has had a number of incarnations and several attempts have been made by various members and contributors to record the past history of the village. About three attempts almost reached publication but the energy required for the last mile of such an endeavour never quite made the goal. In 2017 another committee was formed with the normal objectives of a volunteer village society but with a mission to finally complete the task of publishing this book by bringing together all previous drafts, distilling them into one document which has been verified as to accuracy and sources. In addition, the text has been brought right up to date as much had happened in recent times. The photo archive has also been brought up to date. Readers interested in local social history from medieval times to the present can dip into this book as it is written as a series of essays and is not a chronological history. All village life is here from agriculture to schooling to church to railways and even a massive fire in 1905 which but for the efforts of many could have destroyed the village. This book will be of interest to any local history group both for its content and as a model for producing their local story.