Davenport House, Headington Road
Davenport House stands on the corner of Headington Road and Pullen’s Lane. It was built by John Marriott Davenport in the 1840s. It had its own two-acre garden. and Davenport also owned the adjoining 19-acre "Oxford Field", which stretched from Davenport House to the Boundary Brook (which ran beside the White Horse).
The house and adjoining farmland were purchased by Headington School in 1920, and the estate remained intact until the 1950s, when Headley Way was cut through it near the eastern edge.
The present Headington School was built in 1930 on the Davenport lands, and since that date Davenport House itself has just been an annexe.
On 3 August 1836, when the lands of Headington Manor was put up for auction, George Davenport (1782–1846) an Oxford surveyor, bought most of the land along the north-east side of Pullen’s Lane and all the land facing the Headington Road.
Lot 18, a corner lot of 4 acres and the site of the present Davenport House, was described as:
"A very valuable Plot of Garden Ground, with a newly erected Cottage or Dwelling House upon it, now let on lease, four years of which are unexpired at Michaelmas next."
The copy of the auction catalogue held by the Bodleian Library has a pencil note against this corner plot "4 acres Foy’s", which probably indicates the name of the person whose lease was due to run out in the autumn of 1840.
The preamble to the 1841 census refers to "All that part of Headington north of the Turnpike Road including ... the houses in the field leading to Oxford belonging to Mr Davenport". This implies that there was now more than one house on the Davenport land. One of them is shown below.
George Davenport died in 1846, and his son, John Marriott Davenport (1809–1882) inherited all his father’s land in Headington. In 1847 he bought the site of Jo Pullen’s tree from the new Lord of the Manor, William Peppercorn, and in an article about the tree in the Oxford Herald it is stated that the house on this corner plot was let out to a gardener. This can hardly be the present Davenport House; but it appears that it was built within the next three years.
The 1850 Rate Book lists the following property, all owned by John Davenport:
- A house and land on Headington Hill measuring 2 acres
Occupied by Miss Davenport
Gross estimated rental £40, rateable value £34 - A house and garden on Headington Hill (no measurement given)
Occupied by Henry Burrows
Gross estimated rental £5, rateable value £3-10-0 - A house and garden on Headington Hill (no measurement given)
Occupied by Phipps (late)
Gross estimated rental £12, rateable value £9 - Land called "Oxford Field" measuring 16 acres 3 roods and 29 perches
Occupied by John Davenport
Gross estimated rental £40, rateable value £39 - Land on Headington Hill measuring 3 acres 2 roods 11 perches
Occupied by Joseph Phipps
gross estimated rental £8-7-0, rateable value £8-5-0 - A house and garden on Headington Hill (no measurement given)
Occupied by Alfred Taylor
Gross estimated rental £5, rateable value £3-10-0
The three small houses listed above were no more than small farm cottages, all probably in the Oxford Field facing the Headington Road. But one stood in two acres and was occupied by a Miss Davenport, and its high rateable value shows that it can only be Davenport House. John Davenport initially let the house out to his two sisters, Miss Maria Davenport (born 1812) and Miss Rhoda Grace Davenport (1816–1904).
John Marriott Davenport himself lived in St Mary Magdalen parish at 62 St Giles' Street, where he practised as a solicitor for most of his life. He may have used Davenport House as a country retreat, but he does not seem to have spent much time there.
Davenport’s memorial plaque in St Mary Magdalen Church (right) states that he was a resident in that parish for fifty years.
The plaque lists some of his many roles: Clerk of the Peace for the County of Oxford 1831–1881; Secretary to two successive Bishops of Oxford; and District Registrar of the Court of Probate.
In 1869 Francis Henry Davenport (1846–1914), the third of John Davenport’s sons and the only one not to go to the University of Oxford, is listed as joint occupant of Davenport House with his father. By the time of the 1871 census, Francis is the head of the household at the age of 24, living there alone with three servants and described as a "farmer of 111 acres employing 5 men, 2 boys, and 1 woman". About half these acres may have been rented by the Davenports.
In 1871 John Mattock of Mattock Roses fame was taken on as a servant gardener at Davenport House, but he soon moved on to start his own business.
From the time of his father’s death in February 1882 to his own death in 1914, Francis is listed at his old house at 62 St Giles, but in fact spent much of his life as a farmer in Queensland, Australia.
The Return of Owners of Land of 1876 shows that John Marriott Davenport then still owned just over 53 acres of land in the Oxford area. But soon afterwards Davenport started to sell off his land along Pullen’s Lane, probably because only one of his sons who was non-academic son and interested in the farming life had chosen to farm in Australia rather than Headington.
The 1876 map of Headington (below) shows Davenport House and the cottages on its farmland:
In 1882 Francis’s eldest brother, Thomas Marriott Davenport (1841–1913) moved into Davenport House with his wife Emily and their two children. They had another eight children baptised at St Andrew’s Church between 1883 and 1895.
A graduate of Pembroke College, Thomas succeeded his father as Clerk of the Peace in 1881, and also became Clerk to the County Council in 1889. He acted for many years as Under Sheriff of the County, and as Registrar of the Diocese of Oxford. Thomas is listed in directories as living at Davenport House until his death at the age of 71 on 1 September 1913.
From 1914 to 1916 Mrs Davenport is listed as living at the house, and just Miss Davenport from 1916 to 1920.
Left: Gravestone of Thomas Marriott Davenport and his wife Emily Emma in Headington Cemetery. Their son Henry and daughter Violet are remembered on the two sides.
In 1920 Headington School purchased all the Davenport estate fronting the Headington Road from Pullens Lane to the White Horse. The senior school moved from Brookside into Davenport House, and from 1921 Miss M. M. Bexfield of Headington School is listed under that house in directories.
In 1930 the present main block of Headington School was built at the eastern end of the land attached to the house. Davenport House was then relegated to serving as a school boarding house, and during the second world war it was taken over by the Oxford Corporation Emergency Evacuation Maternity Home.
Initially the Headington Hill Riding School rented the land between Davenport House and the new school building, but now the whole Davenport estate is used by the school, except for a strip of land next to the White Horse that was lost when a brand new road, Headley Way, was cut through to Headington in the 1950s.
The map on the left shows Davenport House in 1898.