Stonesfielders…old and young (and all those in-between), people who’ve lived here forever or who moved in last month…we need your help.
You might have heard that like many other communities up and down the country, some Stonesfield residents have formed a group to create a Neighbourhood Plan. The purpose of a Neighbourhood Plan is to help protect what makes the place you live in special and to protect it for future generations. Once it’s done, Stonesfield will join Charlbury, Eynsham and Hailey and others, in having documents formally registered with the District Council stating what villagers think is important. It can’t definitively stop developers turning the playing field into a 24-hour supermarket, but it is ammunition in the fight.
One part of the Neighbourhood Plan is called the Village Character Assessment. This sounds slightly sinister, but it is just a document which lists all the things which give Stonesfield its character, its history, and its geography.
This is where we need help and there’s not much effort required! Everyone knows about the old pubs, mines, fossils etc, but we are interested in getting information about less well-known things, that are still of interest.
Your house or flat might have a special story behind its name, an interesting building history – this might be as much from the nineteen-seventies as from the earlier eras. Are there interesting views from a particular spot by your property? Is there an interesting family history link? Have interesting people lived there before you? Basically, anything that interests you, interests us.
You can share as little or as much as you like. Anonymously or, if you want the glory, with your name up in lights.
You can email us at np@stonesfieldpc.uk
You can fill in a survey https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/StonesfieldCharacter
We can come to you if you can’t face writing it all down or you’d like to show us something for a possible photograph.
Please get in touch