Headington Hill & Road: The Firs
The Firs is a large villa at the top of Headington Hill, reached by the private road to the left of the reservoir. It appears to have been built by 1861, but is not named in directories until 1869. The map below shows The Firs in 1876:
1861 to 1877: Owned and occupied by
Charles Foster, Esq. and his wife Mary
The prosperous Oxford tailor Charles Foster was born in Bucknell, Oxfordshire on 10 February 1808. He had a shop at 123 & 124 High Street, and eventually employed 50 men and 20 women. He and his wife Mary had seven children and at the time of the 1851 census the family was living over these two shops.
In 1861 Charles Foster was still living over his shops in the High with two of his daughters and three domestic servants, but his wife Mary was living alone in 1861 at Headington Hill with one servant. It seems likely that the family had already bought The Firs, given that Charles Foster is listed in directories as occupying a house on the south side of Headington Hill in 1866, 1867, and 1868. In any event, in 1869 the name of his house is clearly specified as The Firs.
In 1870 Charles Foster put The Firs up for sale, and this advertisement appearing in Jackson's Oxford Journal of 9 April 1870 gives a good description of the house:
HEADINGTON HILL, OXFORD.
TO be SOLD by PRIVATE CONTRACT,—A capital substantial Stone-built FREEHOLD FAMILY RESIDENCE, delightfully situate on Headington Hill, half-a-mile from the City of Oxford, containing entrance hall, large dining, drawing, and breakfast rooms, opening into conservatory; eight good bed rooms, dressing and bath room, store room, and servants' pantry; three large cellars and excellent kitchen, all lighted with gas; stabling for two horses, coach-house, and an acre of land, tastefully laid out in pleasure and crocquet ground; two good gardens, well stocked with fruit trees, two green-houses, forcing pits, &c., &c., with an elevated terrace walk, commanding very extensive and most beautiful views of Oxford, the Thames Valley, and surrounding Hills; front and back entrance, with carriage drive.
This is the most beautifully-situated Property in the neighbourhood, and, from its gravelly soil, is considered by the medical profession to be one of the most healthy situations in the county.
Apply to C. Foster, “The Firs,” Headington Hill, Oxford.
The house presumably did not sell at this point, however, as Kelly's Directory continued to list Charles Foster at The Firs up until 1877. The Fosters do not appear to have lived there much, however, as he and his wife Mary are listed as living at 85 High Street at the time of the 1871 census, and he was now a wine merchant.
It is likely that Foster let the house out. It is not possible to make a positive identification of the occupants in the 1871 census, but Mark Pattison (the Rector of Lincoln College, on whom George Eliot was believed to have modelled Edward Casaubon in Middlemarch) is a possibility: he spent census night at a house at the top of Headington Hill with his wife Emilia and four servants.
On 26 September 1877 the new reservoir at the top of Headington Hill near The Firs was formally opened. As its purpose was to supply water to St Clement's and not to the houses at the top of the hill, it is unlikely to have been welcomed by its neighbours. That is the last year that Charles Foster is listed at The Firs in directories. (When he died at the age of 80 near the end of 1888, his address was given as the High Street in Oxford and his funeral was at All Saints' Church there.)
c.1877–c.1938: Owned by the Morrell family
and occupied by their staff and family members
It appears that the Morrell family of Headington Hill Hall purchased The Firs in about 1877, and let it out to the following people, who included their land agents, members of their family, and others.
c.1877–1880: George Barnes (land agent) and his wife Martha
George Barnes was a land agent, presumably employed by the Morrell family. On 29 January 1880 he died intestate at The Firs at the age of 46 “after a few hours' illness”, and was survived by his widow Martha Ann Barnes.
His widow was evidently required to move out quickly, as Jackson's Oxford Journal of 21 February 1880 announced that all his household furniture and effects would be sold at The Firs on 4 March.
1880–1893: Major William Henry Drage (land agent) and his wife Frances
William Henry Drage was born at Downham in the Isle of Ely near the beginning of 1828.
In 1878 he was still an infantry Major based at Cowley Barracks, but retired soon afterwards, and by 6 March 1880 he had moved to The Firs, where he acted as agent to the Headington Hill Hall estates.
At the time of the 1881 census only his two-year-old daughter Gytha was at home in The Firs, looked after by their cook and housemaid. His youngest daughter Gladys was born at The Firs on 2 September that year and baptised at St Andrew's Church in Headington.
The 1891 census shows William Drage (63) living at The Firs with his South African-born wife Frances (49) and their daughters Gertrude (27), Gytha (12), and Gladys (9). No servants lived in the house with them, but the cook and housemaid who lived in The Cottage and the groom who lived in Dee Cottage nearby probably worked for them.
By 1892 Major Drage was also acting as agent for the Culham Estate from The Firs. He remained at the house until 1893.
(In 1899 Major Drage was living at Park Town in Oxford. He died at Thurleston Manor near Ipswich in 1921.)
1894–1910: The Honourable Edward Alexander Holmes à Court (Chief Constable)
and his wife Adelaide Sophia Hamersley
Edward Alexander Holmes à Court was born in Calbourne, Isle of Wight in 1845, the son of the 2nd Baron Heytesbury. Near the end of 1880 in Christchurch, Hampshire he married Adelaide Sophia Hamersley
At the time of the 1881 census he was a captain aged 35 living at The Cottage, which was just to the north of The Firs, with his wife Adelaide (28), and their cook and parlourmaid. They had three children while living in this cottage, all of whom were baptised at St Andrew's Church in Headington: Rupert Edward Holmes à Court (born 6 February 1882); Adelaide Holmes à Court (born 28 April 1883); and Ruth Mary Holmes à Court (born 4 June 1885).
From 1888 to 1917 Lieutenant-Colonel Holmes à Court was Chief Constable of the Oxfordshire Constabulary.
The family moved into The Firs in 1894.
The map extract below shows The Firs in 1899. Despite being so near the reservoir, it still did not have running water, and the P in its grounds indicates a pump. Headington Hill did not get piped water until 1904.
Lieutenant-Colonel Holmes à Court continues to be listed at The Firs until 1910. (At the time of the 1911 census he was living at the White House in Iffley, and he died in 1923.)
Following his death, the Morrell family improved the house, and employed the architect Harry Wilkinson Moore to make minor additions.
1911–1918: Owned by the Morrell family and occupied by
Mrs Julia Sibella Watt and her niece Julia Maud Denton,
Julia's father Sir George Chaudlin Denton,
and later Julia Denton and her husband James Herbert Morrell
Mrs Watt had lived at Hill Top House nearby with her husband from c.1891, and following his death in 1902 remained there alone until 1910, when she moved into The Firs.
At the time of the 1911 census The Firs was occupied by her stepson Redmond Edward Watt (42), who was a retired major, her niece Julia Maud Mary Denton, and four servants (a lady's maid, parlourmaid, cook, and housemaid).
Sir George Chaudlin Denton, K.C.M.G., the father of Julia, is listed in Kelly's Directory for 1913 only as living at The Firs. He had retired from being Governor of Gambia in 1911: see his Wikipedia entry. (He died in Essex in 1928.)
Mrs Watt died on 11 March 1913. Her death notice in The Times two days later read:
WATT.—On the 11th inst., at The Firs, Headington Hill, Oxford, in her 67th year, Julia Sibella, widow of the late Commissary-General Watt, C.B., and only daughter of the late Rev. R. A. Denton of Stower Provost Rectory, Dorset. The Funeral will take place at St. Clement’s Church, Oxford, at 3.30 p.m. on Friday, the 14th inst.
In April 1913 in Torquay, Mrs Watt's niece Julia Maud Mary Denton married James Herbert Morrell, the heir to Morrell's Brewery and Headington Hill Hall. They are understood to have spent the first part of their marriage living at The Firs before moving to two other nearby houses: Hill Top House in 1918, and then The Rise on Headington Hill. Kelly's Directories, however, oddly list Mrs C. Morrell rather than James or Julia Morrell as the occupant of The Firs in 1914/15 and 1915/16.
Above: The Firs in 1921
It is uncertain whether the next two occupants rented The Firs from the Morrells or owned it themselves:
1918–1926: Captain (later Major) Thomas Jackson
1927–1937: Mrs Georgiana Caroline Wykeham, née Henley
Mrs Wykeham was the widow of Philip James Digby Wykeham, who had died in 1924. She was still living at The Firs when she died on 15 June 1937 at the age of 85.
Mrs Emily Morrell, the owner of Headington Hill Hall, died in September 1938, and it may be that The Firs was not sold by the Morrell family until this time.
1939–1960: Occupied by Colonel Ernest Astley Edmund Lethbridge
and his wife Ruth Mary Holmes à Court
Ernest Astley Edmund Lethbridge was born in Taunton in 1865. On 9 July 1919 at Holy Trinity Church in Upper Chelsea he married the widow Mrs Forrest, whose husband Major Charles Evelyn Forrest had been killed in action on 22 November 1915: she was the former Ruth Mary Holmes à Court, who had grown up at The Firs.
The Firs is not listed in directories from 1938 to 1943, but this may be for security reasons because of the war: certainly in 1940 Colonel Lethbridge, who commanded the 1st Battalion of the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, was living there.
Colonel Lethbridge died on 29 April 1943, and Mrs Lethbridge is listed at The Firs from 1945. She remained there until her death on 29 August 1960.
Above: The Firs in 1939, showing a new, second reservoir immediately opposite the house
On 6 April 1961 the following advertisement appeared in The Times:
CITY OF OXFORD
WELL SITUATED TOWN HOUSE
known as
THE FIRS, HEADINGTON HILL.
Hall, 3 reception, 5 bed rooms, 2 bath rooms, self-contained domestic quarters
with 3 bed rooms; part central heating; all main services; fine garden
(With Planning Permission for Conversion into Flats)
STABLE BLOCK
(With Planning Permission for Conversion into Residence).
Disused Tennis Court.
In all about 1 ACRE.
Vacant possession.
For SALE by AUCTION in TWO LOTS (unless sold privately),
at the Town Hall, Oxford, on APRIL 28th, at 3 p.m.
The Auctioneers were Strutt & Parker, Lofts & Warner, of 14 St Giles.
1962–1978
Miss H. H. Mirrlees
Hope Mirrlees (1887–1978), a writer and poet, lived in The Firs from 1962 until her death in 1978: see her entry here in Wikipedia and in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
The house was sold the following year. The Property section of The Times of 15 November 1979 reported: “Larger and a little further up the price scale is The Firs, at Headington Hill, Oxford. It is surprisingly rural considering it is only about a mile or so from Carfax.” It then goes on to say that the property was built as a dower house in 1893 by the Morrells of Headington Hill Hall (but in fact it had existed since the 1860s).
