Andoversford hamlet, named from the crossing of the river Coln by the Stow–Gloucester road at the east end of the parish, is mainly of 19th- and 20th-century growth, though there were a few dwellings in that area by the 13th century when several inhabitants of Dowdeswell were surnamed ‘of Andoversford’. In the early modern period the place-name usually took the form Anford or Anfords ford. From the Gloucester road a short way west of the ford an old lane led northwards to join an old Cheltenham–London road in Whittington parish west of Syreford, and in the early 17th century an inn (from the mid 19th century called the Royal Oak) was built on the Gloucester road opposite the entrance to the lane.