Oxford Ghost Signs: J. W. Reeve in Temple Street
Picture: Paul Freestone
This ghost sign dating from the early 1950s was revealed in June 2022 when a billboard on the Zaid supermarket at 78 Cowley Road (on its left-hand side, which faces Temple Street) was taken down for replacement. It reads:
J. W. REEVE & CO.
MONUMENTAL MASONS
Phone 2287. Also at Grove St, WANTAGE
John William Reeve was the son of the estate agent William Thomas Reeve (of 40 James Street) and Annie Laura Gatchfield (of 22 Bullingdon Road) who were married on 31 July 1904. He was born at 40 James Street on 16 February 1913 and baptised at St Clement's Church on 27 April. The 1939 Register shows John (then 26) still living at that address with his parents and three of his siblings: he was described as a monumental mason, and his father was now a bailiff.
John set up on his own account as a monumental mason just after the Second World War, with his business premises at his family home at 40 James Street and his works in Temple Street. He is first listed in Kelly's Directory for 1947, and in 1949 the telephone number Oxford 2287 (which the firm still had in the 1970s, preceded by the number 4) was included. By 1952 he had also opened a branch at 28 Grove Street, Wantage.
In 1954 his business was named J. W. Reeve & Co., matching the above sign, which suggests that it was erected between 1952 and 1954. As well as being monumental masons, they were wallpaper & paint merchants and fireplace merchants, and their address was now given as both 78 Cowley Road and Temple Street.
Kelly's Directory, 1952
Kelly's Directory, 1962
By 1958 the company also had two branches in Headington: one at 19 Old High Street, and the other at 2 Underhill Circus, Barton (tel. Oxford 61712).
By 1962 the company gave its main address simply as 78 Cowley Road. A branch at 204/206 Banbury Road, Summertown is listed that year, but never appears again.
By 1964 the branch in Barton had closed, but a second Headington branch had opened at 104 London Road.
By 1966 J. W. Reeve was a limited company and ran their decorating business at both 78 and 150 Cowley Road, with the monumental masonry side of the business in Temple Street. By 1968 they also had premises at 145 & 146 Magdalen Road.
John William Reeve died in Oxford in 1967 at the age of 54 and was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery on 19 November.
The business continued after his death, and by 1970 J. W. Reeve & Co. Ltd were also heating engineers and suppliers of sanitary equipment. The branch at 150 Cowley Road had been replaced by one at 92 Cowley Road, and the branch at 19 Old High Street in Headington had closed.
By 1973 the company sold do-it-yourself supplies at 92 and 150 Cowley Road, 145/146 Magdalen Road, and 104 London Road, Headington. The listing was the same in 1976 (the last Kelly's Directory published).
The DIY shops survived into the 1980s, when the firm started to call itself Reeves (Oxford) Ltd and also sold timber and central heating supplies. The 1980 telephone directory lists the head office at 154d Cowley Road and branches at 145 Magdalen Road, 104 London Road in Headington, and 111d Corn Street in Witney.
Reeves Memorials were based at 145 Magdalen Road, and in 2022 are still going strong at 147A Magdalen Road.