Windmill Road: Old shops
Most of these shops are dealt with more fully in the “Shop history” section of this website, and links to those pages are provided below.
The shops at the north end would have been patronized by people from Old Headington, New Headington, and Quarry and marked the beginning of the Headington shopping centre; but those further south were corner shops catering just for the people of Windmill Road and the streets which were starting to branch out from it. A lady wrote of the grocer’s shop at 107 Windmill Road in the 1930s: “You didn’t need to ‘dress’ to go to buy the odds and ends, in fact the housewives usually came in wearing their ‘pinnies’ and slippers and with their hair in curlers.”
Co-op at north-east corner (1892)
The first ever shop to appear in Windmill Road was the Co-op (now Buckell & Ballard and Oxford Design), built in 1891 on the site of the old toll house and opened in April 1892 “with a great fanfare of trumpets and much beating of big drums”. This was the first major shop in Headington, designed to attract people from Old Headington, New Headington, and Quarry. More…
West’s florists, later garden centre (1893)
West’s florist shop (now housing) opened here in 1893. Until 1965 there was a large nursery behind on the land now occupied by Norton Close. The business closed in 2005 (more…)
Boot shop/newsagent’s at 14 Windmill Road (1910)
The second shop was 14 Windmill Road, built in 1910. The first occupant was the boot dealer Alfred Powell, but in about 1914 it became a newsagent’s shop, run by William Henry Whitchelo until 1954. This shop would have served all Headington, not just the road. More…
Grocer’s shop at 58 Windmill Road (1910)
This fruit & vegetable shop (which later was a butcher’s as well, and is now a private house) opened in 1910. It was the first shop built specifically for the local people of Windmill Road, which was now rapidly being developed southwards. More…
Grocer’s shop at 107 Windmill Road (1910)
Postcard dated 15 August 1911 sent by Rose Wilkins
William Wilkins opened this grocer's shop on the corner of Margaret and Windmill Roads in about 1910 to serve the growing population at the south end of Windmill Road, as well as Margaret and Alexandra (now Gathorne) Roads. The 1911 census shows William (48) as the grocer here, living here with his wife Rose Marie (33) and their son Frederick John Wilkins (16), who was working in the business. William Wilkins died near the beginning of 1919.
His widow Mrs Rose Marie Wilkins continued to run this shop, and remained here up until her death at the age of 73 in October 1948.
For a long time it was the only shop on the east side of the road (apart from the Co-op at the top), and it remained a grocer’s shop until the 1970s.
There is a full description of the shop in Oxfordshire: Within Living Memory (Countryside Books, Newbury and the Oxfordshire Federation of Women’s Institutes), pp. 68–9: “It sold everything from bundles of wood and paraffin to groceries, sweets and cigarettes.”
This shop was Barclay Antiques (above) for many years. In 2019 it was converted into a dwelling downstairs with three flats above.
Draper’s shop at 6 Windmill Road (1920)
At the time of the 1911 census the young widow Mrs Rose Barton (26) was already a fancy goods shopkeeper at an address in Windmill Road. In about 1920 she opened the shop shown above on the right (6 Windmill Road, now Adria). The 1921 census shows her as a draper living here with her son Reggie (13) and her brother-in-law Edward Barton (41), who was a hairdresser at 29 Walton Street. She is described as a “general draper, outfitter, and milliner” of Windmill Road in a 1922 trades directory, and remained here until 1938. Edward Aston the chimney sweep then moved here from Old High Street, and can be see here in the 1939 Register with his wife Esther and their three children.
Grocer’s shop at 8 Windmill Road (1922)
Joseph Skey opened this shop (now Reynold’s Blinds) in 1922 for his son, Ernest, to run as a grocer’s shop. He remained here until 1939 More…
72A Windmill Road (1924)
Fred Grain opened a tobacconist/confectioner/stationer’s shop (now Richard Ford’s secondhand shop) in 1924, and ran it until 1934. More…
Home & Colonial Stores, 2a Windmill Road (1933)
Hollytree House at the north-east end was built in 1933, and comprised three shops numbered 2a, 2b, and 2c Windmill Road just as it does today. The Bury Knowle Club was upstairs and numbered 2d London Road.
Kelly's Directory for 1935 names the first three shops there (running north to south) as the Home & Colonial Stores, MacFisheries Ltd, and F. Cape & Co. Ltd., ironmongers.
The above detail taken from a postcard dating from 1937 shows the Home & Colonial Stores in Windmill Road, with their delivery cart parked in the road outside. The shop continued to be listed in Kelly's Directory up to 1968.
The Parade (1936)
The Parade at the north-east end of Windmill Road involved the demolition of Nos. 1, 3, and 5 Windmill Road and the alteration of Rosslyn Villa, formerly No. 7. The first shops, listed in Kelly’s Directory for 1936, were as follows:
- 1 The Parade (now Craft Burger): A. Butler & Co Ltd, bakers
- 2 The Parade (now Youngman's Barbers): Maylers Café
- 3 The Parade (now Headington Homewares): Maypole Dairy Co Ltd (more…)
- 4 The Parade (now Lush Hair & Spa): E. J. Francis, chemist
- 5 The Parade (now Sandra Homewood Funerals): J. H. Dewhurst Ltd, butcher (more on 5 & 6…)
- 6 The Parade (now Thong Heng Chinese supermarket): E. W. Liley, cooked meats.
9 & 9A Windmill Road (1955) and 11 Windmill Road (1962)
No. 9 was a private house until 1955, when 9A was built in its garden and both were turned into shops. No. 11 did not become a shop until 1962 (more…)
Mattock's Roses
For Mattock's Roses in Windmill Road, see the page about the Mattock family
