139–140: Crew Clothing Co.
Nos. 139–140 date from the twentieth century. This building stands on the site of two former pubs and straddles two former parishes (All Saints to the west and St Martin’s to the east).
At the time of the 1772 Survey of Oxford, Mr Field occupied the site of No. 139 and Mrs Preston that of 140.
The two pubs that formerly stood side by side on this site were the Red Lion at No. 139 on the left, and the original Jolly Post Boys at No. 140 on the right.
Morrell’s bought the lease of the Red Lion from Hall’s some time after April 1851 and closed the old Jolly Post Boys, but to confuse matters they transferred the name of the Jolly Post Boys to the former Red Lion next door in around 1852 or just after. The Post Boys, as it was usually known, remained at No. 139 until 1935, when the building was demolished.
At the time of the 1851 census, Frances Harrison, a widow of 54, was the landlady of the Red Lion at No. 139, and she lived with her son, James Margetts, a confectioner, and a general servant. James Winfield was the landlord at the Jolly Post Boys next door at No. 140, and he lived there with his wife Jane and a general servant.
James Winfield moved next door to No. 139 along with the business soon after the 1851 census. He died soon afterwards, and his wife Jane took over the pub tenancy: in 1881 she was 61 and lived over the pub with her daughter, granddaughter, and sister (an inn servant), plus one general servant.
The old pub at No. 140 became a jeweller’s shop, and at the time of the 1861 census it was occupied by Abraham Davis and his wife and his assistant, a watchmaker. Shortly after this census it became a chemist’s shop, and in 1881 the chemist Josiah Jessop lived upstairs with a dentist lodger.
| Occupiers of 139 &
140 Grey background = former building now demolished | ||
| Date | 139 High Street | 140 High Street |
| 1839–1852 |
Red Lion |
Jolly Post Boys |
| c.1853–1935 |
The (Jolly) Post Boys Landlords: James Winfield (c.1852) Mrs Jane Winfield (by 1861–1889) C. D. Williams (1889–1890) William Charles Darbey (1890–1896) George A. Kelly (1896–1923) Albert Henry Kelly (1923–1935) |
Abraham
Davis Watchmaker & jeweller (1861–1876) Josiah Henry Jessop Homoeopathic pharmacy (1876–1916) Thornton, Murray & Thornton (later Thornton & Thornton) Chartered accountants (1916–1925) Styles & Whitlock Auctioneers (1927–1934) |
| 1937–1958 | Oxford
Trustee Savings Bank Upstairs: Mrs M. G. Moule, Café (to 1947) |
|
| 1964–1967 | Oxford Information Centre | |
| 1975–1992 | Bradford
& Bingley Building Society |
|
| 1993–2007 | Oxford
City Council Payments Office (later renamed Payments & Parking Shop) |
|
| 2007– | Crew Clothing Co. | |