Headington House Old High Street
Headington House in Old High Street is hidden behind high walls facing on to the Croft, and all that can be seen from the road is its gates with their pineapple finials (left) and its lodge. It dates from 1783, and its grounds once stretched as far south as the London Road
William Jackson, the founder of Oxford’s first newspaper, Jackson’s Oxford Journal, built Headington House between 1775 and 1783, on land formerly known as Plants which was purchased from the Lord of the Manor of Headington in 1775. Rather confusingly, Headington at that time had a second, smaller manor (always spelt "Heddington"), and when in 1786 Jackson succeeded George Foot and Mary Coxhead as Lord of the Manor of Heddington, Headington House became its mansion house.
The land on which the house stands is today bounded by the Croft to the north, Cuckoo Lane to the south, Old High Street to the east, and the property on the east side of Osler Road to the west.
Originally the grounds extended southwards as far as the London Road (which was created at about the same time as the house was built) and bridges were built across Cuckoo Lane to link the formal garden to its paddock.
Cuckoo Lane (which hitherto had been the main route to Old Headington) was reduced to the barest possible width and height.
The original lodge of Headington House was on the London Road, half way between the present Osler and Stephen Roads.
On his death in 1795, William Jackson bequeathed the house and land to his friend and employee Miss Mary Jones, the daughter of an Oxford fishmonger. In 1815 she left the property to her niece, Mrs Elizabeth Latimer and her husband Edward, and they in turn became Lord and Lady of the Manor of Heddington.
The Latimers at first used Headington House as their country retreat, but they moved up there permanently from All Saints parish in Oxford in August 1818. Edward was a well-known Oxford wine-merchant, and his twelve surviving children grew up in Headington House. The eldest, Mary, kept a diary between 1817 and 1825, and his wife between 1830 and 1836: both diaries survive, and give a fascinating account of the life of Headington gentry of the period.
Edward Latimer died in 1846 and in 1848 the Manor of Heddington was broken up and sold. Headington House itself was bought by the Oxford banker William Wootten Undershell (who later changed his surname to Wootten, thus becoming William Wootten Wootten).
The Headington Rate-Book for 1850 shows that the rateable value of Headington House and its land (estimated to be just over 7 acres, without the paddock) was then £100. The Return of Owners of Land of 1873 shows that the curtilage of Headington House then comprised 13 acres in all (including the paddock to the south, then known as "Wootten’s Field"). It was probably the Woottens who built a second lodge in Old High Street some time before 1876.
William Wootten-Wootten dropped dead at the age of 67 on Monday 17 January 1887 on arriving at his bank in St Aldate’s for a meeting. He had a splendid funeral at St Andrew’s Church, attended not only by the dignitaries of Oxford (including the Mayor) and of Headington (including G.H. Morrell), but , as Jackson’s Oxford Journal reports, "The church was well filled, a large proportion being of the poorer classes, who claim to have lost a helper in time of need". His widow, Sarah, continued to live in the house with her two unmarried daughters, Elizabeth and Alice, until her death at the age of 82 on 24 June 1904. After remaining empty for two years the house was put up for auction at the Golden Cross Hotel in Oxford 6 June 1906. The catalogue for that auction in the Bodleian Library (G.A. Oxon b 91(6)) gives a good description of the house:
This house is of the Georgian period, and very substantially built of Stone, with a south aspect, and approached by a carriage drive through a beautiful avenue of trees
THE HOUSE contains large Entrance Hall, Dining Room, and Drawing Room, Study, and Morning Room, Eleven Bed and Dressing Rooms, and Three w.c.’s; excellent Offices, comprising large Kitchen, Scullery, Butler’s Pantry, Larder, Dairy and extensive dry Cellarage.
THE GROUNDS are about 11½ Acres in extent, are well timbered and comprise Old English Pleasure Garden, with many specimen trees; a high-walled Kitchen Garden, the walls being covered with choice Fruit Trees, and the whole Garden is in excellent condition; large Tennis and Croquet Lawns, charming and well shaded walks and avenues around the property
ALSO
A PADDOCK of about six acres, with fine old Trees, giving the whole a park-like appearance; and there is an old rookery on the property
The OUTBUILDINGS consist of two modern and well built Lodges, a large and convenient Laundry, excellent Stabling for Four Horses, Coach Houses, Cart sheds, Cow Houses and three large Glass Houses
There is an abundant supply of Water from the City Water Works, the drainage is modern, and the House may be readily supplied with gas from the Oxford Gas Company
There is no Tithe or Land Tax.... The House stands well back from any roads.
The Property will be offered in one Lot, but if not sold then the House, Stables, Lodge, and Gardens, coloured yellow on the Plan, will be offered alone, without the Lodge and Paddock, coloured pink on the Plan.
From 1912 to 1932 Albert H. Franklin is listed in directories as the occupier. According to Iris Masters in Within Living Memory, he gave £1,000 for the house and the park together, and then sold the park for building lots at a very low price. By 1921 the map of Headington shows that the west side of Old High Street to the south of Cuckoo Lane was already being built up, and Stephen Road laid out ready to be developed.
From 1932 to 1953 Headington House was occupied by Walter Stoye.
In 1953 the house was bought by Mrs Aline Halban, who married Isaiah Berlin in 1956. On 10 June 1956, Hugh Trevor-Roper wrote to Bernard Berenson, "Isaiah we have hardly seen. He lives withdrawn in Headington House and, except to meet Bulganin and Khrushchev, hardly emerges."
Sir Isaiah lived there until his death in 1997, and Lady Berlin remained in the house until 2005.
The Ordnance Survey map of 1898 shows how the grounds of Headington House stretched as far south as the London Road, where there was a second lodge.
Listed Building refs: Headington House: 1485/37; Walls to Croft and Cuckoo Lane: 485/37A