Miss Hanwell’s School, Headington
Miss Mary Hanwell, born in Kidlington c.1791, ran a boarding school for young ladies in Church Street (now St Andrew’s Road), Old Headington from the 1820s to the 1850s. It was known as "Miss Hanwell’s Seminary".
The Headington ratebook for 1850 shows that Miss Hanwell owned as well as occupied the house used as the school building, and its rateable value was then £24, and its gross estimated rental £30.
The first mention of this school is in Pigot’s 1830 directory. At the time of the 1841 census Miss Hanwell’s Seminary had sixteen girl pupil boarders aged between 9 and 15 , but in 1851 there were only five, aged from 11 to 13, and was probably already running down. At the time of the 1861 census Miss Hanwell (7) was still living at the school; the teacher was Miss Sarah Manning (16); and there were just three pupils boarding there.
On 18 January 1862 the following notice appeared in Jackson's Oxford Journal:
DIED. Jan. 15, at her residence, Ladies' Seminary, Headington, near Oxford, Miss Hanwell, age 71.
It is likely that the school closed after Miss Hanwell's death.