Listed Building History: The Hermitage, 69 Old High Street
69 Old High Street (formerly numbered 29) was known as The Hermitage in the nineteenth century. It was built between 1697 and 1706, although it was extensively altered in about 1910. It was owned by Magdalen College until 1880.
The Hermitage was built by William Absolon, and escaped the fire of 1718 which destroyed many houses in Headington.
This house is likely to be the house advertised in Jackson’s Oxford Journal for 2 October 1784:
For sale by private contract: Headington: Large stone house, eight bedrooms, two kitchens, brewhouse, stables, garden, about nine acres of land in the field and common meadows with right of horse, sheep, and cow commons, of value £17 p.a. Enquiries to Mr Fletcher, mercer, Oxford, or Mr Mark Sherman, Headington [landlord of the White Hart]”.
In 1802 the lease was renewed by George Fortnam, yeoman of Headington. Its grounds were much bigger at this time, as can be seen from the fact that in 1809 its coach-house and stables were leased by Sir Joseph Lock of Bury Knowle House and now form part of that property. It also had farmland attached to it.
From 1869 to 1874 this house may have been occupied by the physician Charles Thompson and his family, who are listed in directories in this period and in the 1871 census simply under Old High Street.
From 1876 to 1879 it was the home of Alleyn Ward Pearson, Vicar of St Andrew’s Church, and it is listed in a directory for 1877 as “The Vicarage”.
On 28 January 1880, Magdalen College put the freehold of the house up for sale, without its farmland, at an auction in the Mitre Hotel . It was described by Pike & Messenger as a “spacious family residence … lately in the occupation of the Rev. Mr. Pearson”, with an “extensive 2-storey building (recently used as a malt house), about 95 ft. by 20 ft. with adjoining Shed and Loft over, about 50 ft. by 20 ft.” Mrs Maria Ballachey of Bury Knowle House bought some of the grounds of the property, namely the stables and barn, and part of the front yard, which she donated as a site for a British Workman Temperance building.
The house itself, however, remained unsold, and soon after the auction Thomas Richard Knowles made the college an offer of £650, which it accepted. Knowles let the Hermitage out for about £50 a year for twelve years. At the time of the 1891 census he is described as a retired farmer of 71, living in another house in Old High Street with his second wife Jane and his two youngest children, Eva (a 21-year-old schoolteacher and Mary Ann (16-year old scholar). The next year the family moved into the Hermitage, but Thomas died very soon afterwards, aged 72.
His wife and two sons continued to look after the building firm he had owned, and the firm T. R. Knowles & Son is listed at the Hermitage in directories from 1895 to 1908, although the house itself was let out during this period: in 1907 it was occupied by Major-General Astley Fellowes Terry.
In about 1908 it was sold to Alfred Fuller for £775, and he appears to have let the house out, as Miss Courtenay-Bell is listed in directories as the occupant from 1909. The 1911 census shows Miss Margaret Bell (with no mention of the “Courtenay” part of her name), as the head of the household here. She was a lady of private means aged 49, and her younger brother Charles Francis Bell (39), the first Keeper of Fine Art at the Ashmolean Museum, was living with her. They had two servants.
Charles Francis Bell bought the house in 1912, but it continued to be listed in directories under the name of his sister until 1921. From 1922 to 1925, it is listed under the name Charles Courtenay-Bell. According to Jack Stow in Within Living Memory, Bell disliked his windows overlooking the backs of two or three old stone cottages by his house, and head them pulled down, in 1920, apparently without warning: the land is now part of the garden.
Professor Edward G. T. Liddell rented the house from Charles Bell in 1924, and eighteen months later bought it. His widow was still living there in the early 1980s.
Below is a plan showing the land which belonged to the Hermitage at the time of the 1880 sale. The house itself is in the bottom left-hand corner.
Listed Building reference: 1485/58
