Cowley, Oxford
Between Towns Road
The above postcard, which dates from about 1907, shows Between Towns Road (then known as High Street, Cowley) looking northwards towards the Swan. The pair of gabled cottages on the right are the South African War Memorial Cottages built in 1902 (now demolished).
Below: Detail showing the children
Salesian Missionary House
The following postcard shows the grounds of the missionary house in Temple Road (on the corner of Crescent Road). It is dated 10 September 1930, is addressed to the Rev. O. Leake PP of Oxted, and the writer, F.T. White, says “… will you time your reply to arrive on Saturday morning as we are not allowed to receive letters before then as we are on Retreat”.
St Kenelm’s Anglican Boarding School (with about 40 pupils) had moved to this site in about 1880.
From 1906 until 1921 the school was run by the Capuchin Franciscan Fathers, and then by members of the Salesian order. The school chapel (originally St Kenelm’s chapel) served the community as a Roman Catholic parish church until the 1960s.
In more recent years, the premises were St Joseph’s Hall, and is now the St Joseph's campus of King’s Oxford.
Hollow Way
Philip West was the proprietor of this shop on the corner of Crescent Road in the 1930s, and the name on the window blind is “P. WEST”.
Wilkins Road
This card was produced by Geeson's, the shop shown on the right of the postcard below.
This road is first listed in Kelly's Directory for 1933, and was named after John Wilkins, a seventeenth-century Warden of Wadham College.
Hockmore Street
This postcard shows Hockmore Street, looking north towards Between Towns Road
Joan Williams recalls that in the 1950s the large house at the front left was known to her as “Captain Allen’s house”, and that the gate to the John Allen works was just to the left of this house. The next two houses belonged to John Allen & Son and were occupied by other members of the Allen family, and then there are some seventeenth-century cottages.
On the right, the wall enclosed Johnson’s orchard/market garden, and then came the junction with Crowell Road (formerly Cruel or Crowell Lane). In the distance was Dyke’s shop.
Historic England images
Historic England has 218 photographs of Cowley. If you hover over the image you would like and choose “Share” followed by </> you can get the code to embed them on your website.
Here as an example is a photograph of Temple Road in Cowley taken by Henry Taunt in 1912 (HT11590). You can view it full-screen by hovering over the image and then clicking on the symbol at the top right-hand corner: