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The shops that were originally numbered 109 and 110 were obliterated by Oriel College in 1873 to make room for King Edward Street. The large building on the left of the photograph on the west corner of King Edward Street replaced the original Nos. 111 and 112, but was allocated the two missing numbers (109 and 110). This resulted in the anomaly (which still exists today) that Nos. 109 and 110 are followed immediately by No. 113. But as all three shops are occupied by Shepherd & Woodward who give their address as 109–113, it is not immediately obvious that two numbers have been lost.

No. 113 is the left hand side of the white block next door, which was rebuilt in 1932, and some of the original features, such as two seventeenth-century fireplaces, remain. No. 113 together with No. 114 form a Grade II listed building (ref. 1485/335).

At the time of the 1772 Survey of Oxford, No. 113 was occupied by a Mr Strange.

The tenants of Swan Court (the entrance of which was between the old Nos. 110 and 111) and of the surrounding area were given notice in the Oxford Chronicle of 22 October 1870 that Oriel and Lincoln College intended to build this new street from High Street to Bear Lane.

John Goundrey, the ironmonger whose terraced shop at No. 108 had to be demolished when the road was built beside it, moved across to the new shop on this corner, the present No. 109, as soon as it was built. At the time of the 1881 census he lived upstairs there with his wife and four children, plus a cook, a nurse, and a general servant. He is described as employing ten men and eight boys.

Next door in 1881, at the present No. 110, was Mrs Elizabeth Widbin Way, a 66-year-old widowed grocer, living over the shop with her three sons and two daughters, two grandchildren, and a domestic servant. Her three sons were respectively a grocer, chemist, and a wine & spirit merchant. In 1901 Henry and James Way still lived over their shop.

Over the tailor’s shop that occupied the site of the present No. 113 in 1881 lived George Samuel Evens with his wife and six children, and a general servant. His eldest son aged 15 was an assistant tailor.

 

Shepherd & Woodward

Arthur Shepherd bought his first Oxford business from a tailor called Arthur Brockington and opened at 62 Cornmarket Street in 1877. He then moved to 6 Cornmarket, and in 1907 demolished this shop together with its neighbour at No. 8 Cornmarket to form a large new shop. But it was not until 1929 that he amalgamated his business with that of Mr Wilton Woodward who was then operating at 110 High Street, and they were able to expand into the corner shop next door, later also taking over No. 13.

Dennis Venables was apprenticed to Arthur Shepherd in 1927, and bought his share of the partnership in 1945.

The advertisement on the left dates from the 1950s.

 

Shepherd & Woodward is still a family firm, owned by John and Peter Venables and their family, and they also controlled it from 1968 until their father Dennis retired in about 2000, when John Venables passed control to the present managing director, Adrian Palfreyman, the husband of his daughter Tracie.