Filkins has an association with a leading Labour figure of the 20th century, writes CHRIS KOENIG

Many buildings of architectural merit were inhabited by armed forces during the Second World War. In the case of Goodfellows Farm, in Filkins, those occupying forces consisted of Land Army girls.

Almost nothing remains of the great Tudor house, which had been improved and enlarged during the first half of the last century by left-wing politician, lawyer, one-time pacifist and diplomat, Sir Stafford Cripps, who lived there from 1921-39.

The moated house burned to the ground in the cold winter of 1947. Miraculously, no one was killed. But flames spread so rapidly that girls had to flee in their night clothes, with some climbing on to the roof to be rescued by firemen, and others jumping from windows.

A newspaper? reported: "Some had to walk in the snow without shoes. Villagers found accommodation for them for the remainder of the night and lent them clothes."

Now the site of the house is occupied by workshops belonging to the Morley family, where Ben Morley heads a company which repairs, exhibits and sells harps, as well as staging recitals and master classes.

Morley Harps certainly qualifies as a "long established business". Until the late 18th century, the only harps made were comparatively simple folk harps which have a very limited range. Then a French company, led by Sebastian Erhard in Paris, invented the double-action pedal harp, with 46 strings which could raise the range by a semitone or tone.

In the aftermath of the French Revolution, following the execution of many of the company's aristocratic customers, M. Erhard relocated his business to London where he trained and employed the Morleys' ancestor.

In due course M. Erhard returned to France, but the Morleys' business, which acquired a showroom in South Kensington and manufacturing plant in Wood Green, continued to prosper. It moved to its present 12 acres in Filkins in 1987.

The 400 acres around continue to be farmed by the Cripps family.

Sir Stafford was Leader of the House of Commons in Winston Churchill's wartime government, and President of the Board of Trade and Chancellor of the Exchequer in Clement Attlee's postwar Labour administration.

The son of a prosperous London lawyer and conscientious objector, Sir Stafford was an ambulance driver in the First World War. At the start of the second one, Sir Winston, who was anxious to bring the Russians into the conflict on the Allies' side, appointed him Ambassador to Moscow.

His thinking was, presumably, that such a prominent left-winger with strong communist leanings would help the cause.

In any case, Sir Stafford did much for the community of Filkins. For instance, he agreed to underwrite the cost of building the council houses in the village - much beloved of Pevsner - in order to ensure they were constructed in vernacular style using local stone from nearby quarries - and he proved that it was possible to build in such a way within budget!

He also paid for a swimming pool for the villagers, which is still in use, and a village centre which now houses the community shop. But, as local historian Richard Martin, who runs a clothes business called Cotswold Woollen Weavers on part of the site of Goodfellows, said, it is his intangible legacy rather than the tangible one which lives on.

He said: "He was a forthright Christian and he promoted self-help. And even today people come into the village to work, rather than leave it, each day."