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

65 Holywell Street dates from 1639, but the front has been altered, probably in the eighteenth century. There is a coachway to the east that used to lead to a yard (known as Brooks Yard from the 1860s) with a cottage. It is owned by New College.

It is a Grade II Listed Building (1369381), with the following description:

No 65 SP 5106 NE 6/245 12.1.54. II GV 2.
House. RCHM 225. Dated 1639 but the front has been altered, probably in C18. Three-storeyed plastered timber-framing with cellars, a moulded eaves cornice and a roughcast parapet. The ground floor has on the West a wide sash window with shutters and on the East is a coachway. The first floor has two renewed double-sashed bay windows in wood frames on original carved wood brackets of grotesque beasts; the two brackets on the West have "ASCS", on the East one and "'1639" on the West one. The bays are carried up to the second floor which has two double sash windows in moulded wood frames. At the back is a good gabled elevation almost in its original state with a roughcast staircase projection.

Carved wooden brackets of 1639

The first-floor windows have the original carved wood brackets bearing grotesque beasts. The two to the west are carved with “AS / CS” and “1639” respectively. They are shown below as they were before they were painted pink, as they are now harder to read:

In 1772 a Mrs Slatter was living here: she was probably the mother of the builder Thomas Slatter, who lived in Holywell with his wife Ann (born c.1760) and had seven children baptised at St Cross Church between 1788 and 1804.

Mrs Ann Slatter (born c.1760) was widowed and living in Holywell (probably at this house) when her youngest son Thomas Slatter junior died at the age of 34 on 21 July 1834. She was definitely living at No. 65 by 1839, as on 9 March that year the following notice in Jackson’s Oxford Journal advertised the auction of the three-quarters reversion on this house following her death and stating that she was currently aged 79. It gives a description of the house, the yard, and the second house in the yard:

Mrs Ann Slatter died aged 82 on 9 July 1842, and a sale of her furniture was held at 65 Holywell Street on 19 September that year.

On 21 March 1846 another auction of 65 Holywell Street was advertised:

A convenient and roomy DWELLING HOUSE, fronting the above street, being No. 65, and capable of being divided into and now occupied as two tenements, together with a spacious yard and carriage entrance thereto, sheds and workshops behind the same, in the occupation respectively of Mr. Maxey, upholsterer, and his under tenant: and also a convenient Cottage situate in the yard and occupied by Mr. John Slatter. The above premises are in good repair, and are held under Merton College for a term of 40 years, from Lady Day, 1845, renewable every 14 years, at a trifling reserved rent.

Henry Maxey, the cabinet maker who occupied the main house and the yard behind, died here at the age of 56 in January 1854, and the following advertisement appeared in Jackson’s Oxford Journal for 30 September 1854:

To Cabinet-Makers, Upholsterers, Brokers, &c.

TO be DISPOSED OF, THE STOCK in TRADE, extensive YARD, and WORKSHOPS, occupied by the late Mr.  Henry Maxey, where a flourishing trade has been carried on for several years; the situation is very good, in the centre of Holywell-street, No. 65. The House, which is well adapted for letting lodgings, contains thirteen rooms, may be entered on immediately; the Furniture and Stock in Trade to be taken at a fair valuation, as the widow is leaving Oxford. Rent very moderate. A Lease may be had, if required.

Jane Burden gave 65 Holywell Street as her place of residence in 1859 when she married William Morris, but the 1861 census (below) shows that her parents and her sister Elizabeth actually lived in the cottage in Brooks’ Yard behind the main house. The below, taken in 1913 (Historic England CC72/01912) shows that yard: