The Sign

The village sign for Stratford St Andrew shows the mill, of which little now remains. Whilst the black swan, which can be seen on the sign, is a reminder of a coaching inn, named the 'Black Swan'. This inn no longer exists. The coat of arms of leads us to the story of a famous lawyer called Ranulph de Glanville. These are the arms later described to him and his descendants. the words on the arms: "confide recte agens"  translates as 'doing rightly, be confident'. The pigs in the top left represent the farming industry in the area. The church of St Andrew is shown in the top right, with the flag of St Andrew (Saltire) in the background; the church has been redundant since 1992 and is now in private hands. In the bottom left is Ranulf de Glanville’s treatise, the Tractatus de Legibus et Consuetudinibus Regni Angle. The sign was designed by Derek Jarvis and erected in 2001. It sits at an awkward junction on the A12 trunk road, close to the Farnham village sign by the river.

The Name and Population
It was called Straffort in 1086, Strateshell in 1203 and Strafford in 1254. The name means "The ford on the paved road", from Old English, with the dedication of the church added later. The population was 185 at the 2011 census.

Other Points of Interest
Ranulph de Glanville was born in Stratford St. Andrew and lived during the time of Henry II, and for a short while into the reign of Richard I. His grandfather had crossed with the Normans in 1066 and settled, and held estates and property, in both Suffolk and Norfolk.