AT FIRST glance, leafy little Stanford in the Western Cape could easily be mistaken for an English village, despite it being founded by an Irishman, Robert Stanford, in the 1850s. With a mix of Edwardian and Victorian architecture and its 180-erf "inner core", a protected heritage site, the village exudes a typical Cape Colonial atmosphere, about which the locals are fiercely protective.An active Conservation Heritage Trust chaired by resident Royd Frith does its best to preserve the traditional village status and has even published a handbook of local protocol, titled Simply Stanford, which encourages new home owners and renovators to follow set guidelines. However, houses within the inner core — which front onto their boundaries and are referred to as nagmaal (communion) houses, as they are located where the original settlers took communion — must retain their original edifices and any other alterations the owners wish to make must be approved by the trust. These were once the hom...
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