All Saints’ Church, Lime Walk
The postcard above shows the west and south side of All Saints’ Church, Lime Walk soon after it was consecrated in 1910, before the chancel was added at the eastern end. The photograph below, taken in 2015, shows the enlarged church, surrounded by mature lime trees, which were drastically pollarded in 2006
By the early twentieth century, New Headington village had expanded to Lime Walk in the west and Windmill Road in the east and had outgrown its little All Saints' Mission chapel in Perrin Street. Mrs Morrell of Headington Hill Hall pledged £1000 towards the building of a proper church, provided that the villagers raised the same amount, which they did, and the total cost for the building of the nave was £3,300. A large house in Lime Walk had to be demolished to make room for the new church.
The inscription on the foundation stone facing All Saints Road states that it was laid by the Bishop of Oxford (Frances Paget) on 31 July 1909. The church was was consecrated on 29 May 1910, and the new Parish of Highfield was formed ten days later on 9 June 1910.
The chancel to the east was added in 1937 at a cost of £4,638. This necessitated the demolition of a pair of houses on the west side of New High Street. The two photographs below show the interior of the church (1) shortly after it was opened, with no chancel and (2) the same view in 2010, with the 1937 chancel:
The church, designed by the firm of Arthur Blomfield & Son, is described by Pevsner as having “an exceptionally impressive interior” of exposed brick. It is a large church: it originally seated 400 people, and this increased to 600 after the chancel (designed by N. W. Harrison, who lived at the present 57 Old Road) was added in 1937.
There is a plaque inside the church to John Wesley Woodward of 24 Windmill Road, a bandsman who died on the Titanic.
All Saints' parish hall in New High Street ( now “Church House”)
The above photograph shows Highfield Hall on the site of Church House in New High Street in about 1915. This corrugated iron building served as a parish hall until the mid-1960s. The photograph below shows a Coronation Party in this old hall in 1953.
Church Garth, a staff house in New High Street, was built in 1958/9 at a cost of for £2,400
The present Church House (above) cost £21,000 after a ten-year appeal was opened by Princess Margaret on 24 February 1967
All Saints Vicarage House, 85 Old Road
When the Revd Canon Francis Tolvey Colson was appointed Vicar of the new parish and church of Highfield in 1910, there was no house for him, and the 1911 census shows him living at All Saints Lodge in Highfield with his wife and son and their cook and housemaid.
The vicarage in Old Road was built in 1912/13 at a cost of £2,100. On 11 June 1913 the Revd H. N. Perrin came to dedicate the new vicarage, although the builders had not quite finished the work and Canon Colson was not able to move in until the end of the year. It is next to the present Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre. Its original address was 27 Old Road; from 1930 it was 49 Old Road; and since 1949 it has been 85 Old Road.
A tea party at Highfield Vicarage in 1915
The first six Vicars of All Saints' Church all lived in this vicarage, but following the retirement of the Revd James Cocke in 2020, the Oxford Diocesan Board of Finance put it up for sale by Carter Jonas with an asking price of £1.8 million), with covenants on the site, and an overage for future development. In November 2022 a planning application was submitted for “Demolition of existing garage. Erection of a single-storey rear extension. Removal of 1no. chimney. Formation of raised terrace to rear and associated landscaping. Alterations to fenestration. Replacement of front gates and fencing and existing driveway to be landscaped with gravel” (22/02837/FUL).
Both the church and the vicarage were added to Oxford City Council's Heritage Asset Register in 2018.
