13/13A Holywell Street dates from the early seventeenth century. The central passageway leads to a yard at the back, and it appears to have been divided into two cottages (Nos. 13, the larger one on the right, and 13A, the smaller one on the left). It is owned by Merton College.
It is a Grade II Listed Building (1087113), with the following description:
Nos 13 & 13A SP 5106 NE 6/214 12.1.54. II GV 2.
House. RCHM 210. Early C17 two-storeyed rubble with two tall gabled dormers with stone copings. In each gable is an original three-light stone ovolo-moulded mullioned window with a square label. Below the dormers is a moulded stone string. There is a modern brown tiled roof and on the East is a moulded stone-based stack with a modern brick shaft. The ground floor has two C18 wooden sliding Yorkshire casement windows with a plain doorway in between them. The central passage way through the house leads to a yard at the back and the house was probably originally divided into two cottages. The first floor has two moulded stone window frames with square heads and two-light C18 casement windows, the stone mullions having been removed. The back on North has a large gable and a projecting stone stack.
Interior: RCHM p. 181b. Includes an original fireplace.
This house was painted by J. A. Shuffrey in 1906, when it still had shutters at the windows (OXCMS: 2001.74,14, pictured on p. 40 of Lauren Gilmour and Margaret Shuffrey, J. A. Shuffrey 1859–1939: An Oxford Artist’s Life Remembered).
13 & 13A Holywell Street in the censuses
1841
The 1841 census for Holywell does not give house numbers, but it is possible to deduce where people listed that year lived by examining directory entries between 1839 and 1842 and later censuses
No. 13
Thomas Rogers (50), a college servant, lived here with Elizabeth (40).
No. 13A
Ann Halden (40), a college servant, lived here with her daughters Elizabeth (15), Ann (14), and Mary Ann (11). They had one lodger.
1851
No. 13
Thomas A. Preston (30), a servant of New College, lived here with his wife Sarah (3) and their children Charlotte (2), Sarah (1), and Martha (2 months). They had one servant.No. 13A
Ann Halden (56), a widowed college servant, still lived here with her daughters Anne (24) and Mary (21), and her nephew George Shepperd (26), who was also a college servant. She was at No. 13 in 1841, but possibly the two parts of the house were numbered differently by the enumerators.
1861
No. 13
Elizabeth Williams (39), a butler’s wife, lived here with her children Harry (8), Frank (5), Walter (3), and her nephew John Prior (17), an ironmonger. Her husband was away on census night.No. 13A
William Hounslow (45), a bootmaker, lived here with his wife Caroline (40) and his children Amelia (13), Louisa (11), Frederick (9), and Alfred (5). Also in the household was Hounslow’s unmarried brother Phillip (50), who was employed elsewhere as a servant.
1871
No. 13
Robert Taylor (29), a plumber, lived here with his wife Mary Ann (20) and their children Amy (5), Frank (4), and Emily (3). They had no servants.No. 13A
This is not listed by this number in 1871 but is probably the dwelling given the number 12½ and occupied by Henry Godfrey (25), a college servant, his wife Mary Ann (3) and their children William (5) and Charles (3).
1881
No. 13
Henry Godfrey (44), a college messenger out of employ, lived here with his wife Mary (46) and his children William (15), who was, a draper’s porter; Charles (13); Edith (9); and Lily (6).No. 13A
Martha Way (74), the widow of a college porter, lived here with her son John (40), who was a draper’s porter.
1891
No. 13
George Paske (48), a college bedmaker, lived here with his wife Jane (47) and their son George (12).No. 13A
Martha Way (84),now described as a college servant pensioner, still lived here with her unmarried son John (50), who was a general labourer.
1901
No. 13
George Paske (58), a college bedmaker, still lived here with his wife Jane (57), who was the daughter of Martha Way, and his daughter Louisa (25), who was a dressmaker who worked for herself at home.No. 13A
John Jenkins (56), a cook at a club, lived here with his wife Louisa (54), who worked as a cook, and his daughter Emily (23), who was an elementary school teacher.
1911
No. 13
George Paske (68), now a pensioner college servant, still lived here with his wife Jane (66) and their unmarried daughter Louisa (34),No. 13A
Henry Freeman (45), a house decorator, lived here with his wife Marie (46) and their sons Edward (15), Cornelius (14), Roland (12), and Charles (5).
1921
No. 13
Jane Paske (74), the widow of George Paske, continued to live here with Louisa (44), who worked at home as a dressmaker.No. 14
Marie Elizabeth Louise Freeman (56), who described herself as married, was still here with her sons Cornelius (24), who was a builder's clerk with Benfield & Loxley Ltd in Bullingdon Road, and Charles (15), who was an assistant on tinning works with the Osberton Radiator Company in Osberton Road.
1939 Register
No. 13
The college servant William Simpson was listed here with his wife Violet.No. 13a
The elderly widow Elizabeth Anstie was listed here with Miss Ida Anstie.
Occupants of 13 & 13A Holywell Street listed in directories etc. |
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No. 13A (left) |
No. 13 (right) |
|
1758 |
Mr Broughton | |
1772 |
Mr Speakman |
Mr Saunders |
1841, 1846 |
Ann Haldon |
Thomas Rogers |
1851 |
Thomas Preston |
|
1861 |
Mrs Vallins (in directory) William Hounslow |
John Williams |
1866 |
Thomas James |
|
1871–1872 |
Robert Taylor |
Henry Godfrey |
1875–1876 |
Charles Stapleton |
|
1881 |
Mrs Martha Way |
|
1884 |
Mrs West |
|
1887 |
W. Tollitt |
|
1889–1896 |
George Paske to his death in 1915, |
|
1901–1905 |
John Jenkins |
|
1914–1931 |
Mrs Freeman |
|
1933 |
Mrs Somerville |
|
1935–1936 |
William Simpson |
|
1938–1976 |
Miss Anstee |
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Today |
Merton College annexe |
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