Grand Tour

   (History of each of
   the hundred houses
   of Holywell Street)

Holywell Bowling Green

Holywell Cemetery

Holywell Church 

Holywell Cock Pit

Holywell Cottage

Holywell Gallows

Holywell Manor

Holywell Mill

Holywell School

The Holy Well

Window tax

Listed buildings

House numbering

1830 directory

1839–1847 directories

1667 poll tax

Pubs

Timeline

20 Holywell Street has now stands on the eastern corner of Mansfield Road, but prior to 1891 the road beside it was Park Place. It dates from the early seventeenth century and was refashioned in the eighteenth century. It is owned by Merton College.

It is a Grade II Listed Building (1369396), with the following description:

No 20 SP 5106 NE 6/208 12.1.54. II GV 2. House. RCHM 206.
Early C17, refashioned in C18. Three-storeyed cement-rendered timber-framed front on a stone base. The South front has a moulded cornice at the first floor, three hipped gables in a Welsh slate roof with modern red brick stacks. The ground floor has two double C18 sash windows in modern wood frames, one on either side of the front doorway which has two steps up to it, a moulded wood frame and a rectangular fanlight. The first and second floors have similar double sash windows. On the West is a passageway and in the West wall of the house on the ground floor is some original early chamfered wood partitioning. The West side of the passageway is of rubble and has a gable end above it. In September 1949 the South front was stripped and refaced with grey cement rendering on expanding metal laid on the timber-framing. Behind the old plastered front were found at each end of the second floor the original C17 two-light wood mullioned window frames which had been left undisturbed by the C18 frontage; these were again covered over.
   Interior: RCHM p. 181a. Includes an early C17 staircase, plastered ceilings, overmantel and panelling and two C18 moulded stone fireplaces and some C18 panelling.

The Holywell Boarding School for young ladies was opened here in 1770. It was run by Mrs Madegon, who announced in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 26 May 1770 that it would open immediately after the ensuing Whitsun Holiday, and she would teach the young ladies reading and all kinds of needlework for a fee of 7s. 6d. per quarter for day girls and twelve guineas per annum for boarders. She added, “The House is extremely commodious for the Purpose, and besides an extensive Garden, opens to the Parks, and is in a fine healthy Situation”. On 9 January 1779 she announced that she had removed her school from Holywell to a more commodious house in the High Street, near Carfax.

At the back was another house with workshops numbered 21 and 21A. This was presumably reached by the door to the passageway on the left of No. 20.

It seems likely that this advertisement on 25 April 1795 of the forthcoming auction of a house in Holywell Street refers to No. 20, in which case it was numbered 15 under the old numbering system:

All that LEASEHOLD DWELLING HOUSE and PREMISSES, No. 15, situated in the Center of Holiwell Street; comparising three Rooms on a Floor, with a large Back Building, likewise occupied as a Dwelling House, with large Stables and other Out Offices; a Garden walled round, together with near Half an Acre of Garden Ground, in the Parks, adjoining the Garden Wall, and a Horse Common in Piddington's Green. The Gardens are well planted, the Whole in good Repair, and lately renewed for forty Years.
   The above Premisses are well adapted for a Private Family, or an extensive Trade.

The following advertisement for a forthcoming auction appeared in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 14 November 1846:

Lot 1.—A comfortable Private DWELLING HOUSE, No. 20, Holywell-street, containing an entrance passage, sitting room, and kitchen, on the ground floor; drawing room, bed room and two large closets on the first floor; three bed rooms and two closets on the second floor, and attic over; pump of good water, scullery and other out-offices, two cellars, and a good garden at the back of the same, now in the occupation of Mr Wells. Also a DWELLING HOUSE adjoining, being No. 21, containing a sitting room, kitchen, scullery, &c. on the ground floor; sitting room and bed room on the first floor, and three bed rooms over; cellar, pump of good water, small garden, out-offices, and other conveniences, now in the occupation of Mrs. Hollier.—Land Tax, 2l. 6s. 2d.; Quit Rent, 1l. 15s, 3d.
Lot 2—A very excellent piece of GARDEN GROUND, with Summer House thereon, situate in The Parks, Oxford, containing a frontage to the public path at the back of Holywell-street of 39½ ft. by a depth of 279½ ft.—Land-Tax, —; Quit Rent,—.
   This Property is held by Lease under Merton College, Oxford, for a term of 40 years, from Lady Day, 1837.

The property was advertised again on 8 May 1847 and described differently:

All those Two comfortable DWELLING HOUSES, with Garden Ground at the back of each, being No. 20 and 21, in Holywell-street; also a very good DWELLING HOUSE, Workshops, & c. with Two enclosed Gardens at the back of the same, lately occupied by Mr. G. L. Luker, plumber and glazier; and a detached Garden in the Parks, with Summer House thereon, containing a frontage to the public path at the back of Holywell of 279 feet.

The Luker plumbing and glazing business was based at No. 21 and 21A behind for over fifty years. On 17 April 1847 the following advertisement appeared in Jackson’s Oxford Journal:

WILLIAM LEWIS LUKER, PLUMBER, GLAZIER, AND PAINTER, Begs respectfully to inform the Nobility, Gentry, and the Public generally, that he has taken to the business and premises, No. 21 Holywell-street, so successfully carried on by his late lamented Father for upwards of 40 years, and trusts that by strict attention and moderate charges to merit a continuance of their patronage and support.

On 22 May 1847 the following advertisement relating to all three houses in this group appeared:

VALUABLE LEASEHOLD DWELLING HOUSES, With excellent GARDEN, In HOLYWELL STREET, Oxford. Also a desirable detached GARDEN, with Summer House, &c. IN THE PARKS, OXFORD. Calculated for investment or occupation, and is well worth the attention of capitalists, a sale being absolutely indispensable.

TO BE SOLD BY AUCTION, By Messrs. T. MALLAM and Son, At the sign of the Roebuck Inn, Oxford, on Thursday the 3d day of June, at six o’clock (by the direction of the executrix of the late Mr. William Carter), in the following lots:—

Lot 1. — A comfortable PRIVATE DWELLING HOUSE, No. 20, Holywell-street, containing an entrance passage, sitting room, and kitchen, on the ground floor; drawing room and two large closets on the first floor, three bed rooms and two closets on the second floor, and attic over; pump of good water, scullery, and other out-offices, two cellars, and a good garden at the back of the same, now in the occupation of Mr. Wells. Also a DWELLING HOUSE adjoining, being No. 21, containing a sitting room, Kitchen, scullery &c. on the ground floor; sitting room and bed room on the first floor, and three bed rooms over; cellar, pump of good water, small garden, out-offices, and other conveniences, in the occupation of Mrs. Hellier. Quit rent 18s., and a land tax.

Lot 2. — A very good DWELLING HOUSE, situate at the back of the above [No. 21], and in which the business of a plumber and glazier has been carried on for a great number of years past; containing two good sitting rooms, five bed chambers, domestic offices, cellaring, &c. &c., with detached workshops, large yard, &c.; and also two enclosed large and very productive Gardens at the back of the same; the whole in length from the front of the dwelling to the Parks 312 feet. Quit rent 15s. and a land tax.

Lot 3. — A very excellent Piece of GARDEN GROUND, with Summer House thereon, situate in the Parks, Oxford, containing a frontage to the public path at the back of Holywell-street of 39½ feet, by a depth of 297½ feet. Quit rent 2s. 3d.

This property is held by lease under Merton college for a term of 40 years, from Lady Day, 1837.

May be viewed at any time previous to sale by leave of the tenants, and any further particulars obtained of Mr. Mathews, solicitor, and of the auctioneers, High-street, Oxford.

No. 20 and the cottage behind were offered for sale again on 16 December 1848 in two lots:

Valuable LEASEHOLD PROPERTY, IN THE PARISH OF HOLYWELL, OXFORD

TO BE SOLD BY AUCTION, By Messrs. I. and W. FISHER,
On Wednesday the 20th December, 1848, at the King’s Arms Inn, at Six o’clock, in two lots.

Lot 1. — A substantially-built and commodious DWELLING HOUSE, No. 20, Holywell-street, with ample accommodation for the occupation by a large family, extensive garden in the rear thereof, out-buildings and stable, with door-way opening to the path leading towards Holywell Church. The House might, with little expense, be made into two. — This lot extends in depth, from the street to the path, 393 feet.

Lot 2. — A convenient and retired COTTAGE, situate in the centre of two large gardens at the back of Lot 1, and divided therefrom by the path leading to Holywell Church above-mentioned, and is in depth, from the path to the back, 284ft. 10 in.

The above premises are held by Lease under the Warden and Scholars of Merton College, Oxford, for the remainder of a term of 40 years, from Lady Day, 1838.

By 1851 the whole building was occupied by the Luker family.

William Lewis Luker, the plumber at 21A, died at the age of 48 in February 1857 and his wife Mary took over the business. She died in mid-August 1863, and in December 1863 the plumber and painter George H. Beddall, who had managed the plumbing & glazier business that Mrs Luker had inherited from her husband, succeeded to the business. He died at the age of 30 near the beginning of April 1867, and in Jackson's Oxford Journal of 27 April 1867 his executors advertised an auction of the premises, which they stated were suitable for plumbers and glaziers, and for others requiring good business premises. It was described thus:

All that desirable extensive and valuable LEASEHOLD PREMISES, situate in the centre of Holywell-street; comprising good Dwelling House, capital newly-erected Workshops, extensive Out-Premises, and large Gardens, with entrance from the Parks, in which the above business has been carried on for a long period of years, and for which they are most admirably situated and adapted.
    The lease is held under Merton College, Oxford, at a nominal Quit Rent for 40 years, from 5th April, 1851.

On 5 October 1867 the plumber, painter, & glazier Henry Owen Crane advertised in Jackson's Oxford Journal that he had taken the premises that had been occupied by many years by Mr Luker.

The lease from Merton College of 21A was advertised in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 18 July 1885:

All that LEASEHOLD DWELLING HOUSE and PREMISES, known as 21A, Holywell Street, Oxford, containing on the second floor two good attics, with cupboards, &c.; on the first floor large front bed room, with panelled walls, and dressing room adjoining, and back bed room. On the half landing small linen closet. On the ground floor large front sitting room, with panelled walls, back parlour, with kitchener and china closet, and small back kitchen, with good cupboard accommodation. There is a range of excellent Outbuildings, and brick-built and slated Workshops, with copper, w.c., a pump and well of excellent water and a large Garden, with an entrance from Holywell-lane.
  The Premises are in the occupation of Mr. H. O. Crane, for the residue of a term which will expire on the 25th March, 1891, at a yearly rent of £55.

Nos. 21 & 21A disappear after 1891, following the creation of Mansfield Road.